Clash of the Elements Part 5: The Lover From the Lost Aura
by mewmaster93
Summary: Long ago, there was not just the nine elemental tribes, but a tenth one dedicated to the power of one's inner energy, or aura for short. These Aurians have lived in secret above the Earth for two-thousand years, but the desperation of it's leader has drawn the Elemental Overlord Mew into a conflict that will change the history of the universe. This is the beginning of turmoil...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

Regrettably, I have to open up this story by mentioning a rather important detail. Any Mario content that happens in this part will come at the very, very end in a side-story. Part 5 and Part 6 will both share this issue, but it's the only way I can really justify placing it on instead of forcing my fans to go to FictionPress without any idea of when I'd actually have both Parts up.

So if you are here looking for a Mario story, then turn around now. If you are interested in what's going on though, I'd suggest at least reading Part 4's prologue "Travels of the Overlord" to get enough info on the main character of this part. You can read the other stuff at a later date in preparation for Part 6.

Either way, with that out of the way lets begin!

* * *

In the dead of night, a woman walks through an abandoned temple blanketed with darkness. On the walls were mosaic glass paintings depicting about ten different looking elderly folk, and below the paintings there was one crystal each. Once she reached the middle of the room, the woman raised her right pointer finger up and nothing else, her sleeve drooping to her elbow as she flicked her finger forward and created a glowing ball of aquamarine energy.

With a wave of her finger, the woman guided the orb towards one of the crystals and passed it right through, causing it to glow bright green. She then murmured to herself the following words while guiding the energy towards the other crystals in the room "Sages of times past, observers of the tribes of yesteryear…From beyond the grave I ask you permission as your descendant to open the room I wish to see. Recognize the activation of the ten crystals you left behind, and forgive me for what I am about to do."

When the crystals glow all the way, the woman dispels the ball of energy and watches as the crystals spread light into the floor, brightening the darkness with a rainbow flash for a brief moment. Power exudes from the floor that makes the woman's robe rise up slight, and ten voices called out to her and said _"We accept your request again, but know that we are disappointed in you as well for making this decision." _

The rainbow light then shrinks down into a pathway connecting the woman's feet to the bottom of a glowing rectangle at the other end of the room, and the light removes that part of the wall to reveal a passage that carried out the light of what appeared to be some flames from within. The crystals then dispel the light from within, and the woman scratches the back of her head and says quietly "Figures you'd say that, you stupid old bastards…"

The woman then slowly followed the trail until she entered the passage, laying one hand against the wall to the right of her until she made it into the room where the fiery lights came from. Inside this room was over a hundred alcoves, each one carrying a single lit candle inside of it. At the center of the back of the room was a small altar where two golden wings, one angelic and one demonic, were folded over a sphere illuminated with a pale neon glow that was wrapped around the center by a single string.

Slowly walking from the entrance of this room to the other side where the orb was, the woman looks around at the candles and stops to bow towards them all with one hand laid atop her chest. She then continues her walk towards the sphere, ending a few feet in front of it as a circle of energy appears around the bottom of the altar to halt her movements. "…Altar of the Overlord, do you not recognize my voice? Do you not recognize my aura, or my body? If you do not wish to be dismantled and turned into parts, then you will dispel your protective circle and allow me access to that which you guard!"

And just like that, the wings unfold from the sphere and the circle of light vanishes, causing the woman to sigh and remark "So you don't respond to the first three things but instead my attitude? …Unsurprising that you chose to do this, my departed love." The woman then stepped forward once and picked the orb up from the altar, holding it before her face as a particular memory comes into her mind _"If you are ever troubled, and absolutely all other options are exhausted…Use this orb. I will respond to your call, no matter where in the universe I may be." _

Unwrapping the string from the rest of the orb as she remembers those kindly words, the woman says to herself "I have no other choice…If I am to defy the horrible, fated futures, I have to call in outside assistance, even if it means revealing this tribe to him prematurely." Taking the string by the end, the woman puts it into her right ear, where it suddenly comes to life and latches onto the eardrums so it can connect to her brain. Her eyes glow a hazy rainbow color as she looks down at the orb, and as the haze in the orb begins to fade away she remarks to herself "I hope you will heed my call, inheritor of the Elemental Overlord's legacy…"

**Clash of the Elements Part 5: The Lover From the Lost Aura**

**Chapter 1: A Day in the Life…**

_Morning…_

The Earth was enjoying a time of peace and quiet lately. The fact that a human could wake up with about a 99% chance of not running into any natural disasters could all be attributed to some unknown soul that very few people have seen flying around in the skies during the moments when a hurricane, earthquake or volcanic eruption have occurred. Nobody has determined who this mysterious person is. Many speculate it's a superhero, or perhaps even a peaceful god that wants nothing more than to fight for the prosperity of humankind.

There are even the rare few that theorize that it's an alien using his technology as a means of showing good will before he reveals himself. But amongst the general few who have caught a close enough glimpse to this person, they are in unanimous agreement that it's a male due to the frame of his body. However, for those out there who theorize that the person is a calm, meditating soul who eats nothing but vegetables and loves nature above all else…They couldn't be farther from the truth if they tried.

"WAHOOO!" A teenage boy lets out a happy cheer that echoes throughout the mountain range he is currently sprinting across barefooted. The ruggedness of the mountain rocks did nothing to hurt his feet, and he ran non-stop even when faced with steep climbs or a completely vertical mountain side. Once he does exactly that and makes it to the top of the highest mountain, he looks at most of the mountain range from above the thin layer of fog that had settled down in the early morning. Stretching his arms up high, the boy could hear his bones crack through his body before he remarks "Nothing like twenty runs through the Rocky Mountains before breakfast…"

The boy was wearing a black t-shirt with a flame emblem on the front of his chest and a nice pair of blue jeans. He was close to six feet tall and had a full head of brown hair that was a bit spiky all around, with most of the hair sticking out past the forehead. He also has blue eyes that he finally opens up once he finishes stretching, and a smile half as wide as his face. Now that he was done with his morning exercise, the boy named Mew looked down at the small humble house he lived in, which looked pretty small from this far up, and said "Lets see here…How should I head back down?"

Noticing a clean drop without any wildlife or plants between here and his house, Mew grins and lowers his right hand onto the ground, drawing in the moisture from the fog around him to swirl together a miniature discus of water with a flat top and a round underside. Mew then leaps onto it and holds a pose like he was a surfer, giving the water just a little nudge with his mind so he can send himself sliding down the face of the mountain. With a gleeful smile, Mew proclaimed once more "WAHOO!" only with a little more excitement in his voice as the mountain broke apart his water board bit by bit, leaving a trail of water in his wake until he reached the very bottom.

At the end of his little surfing trip Mew leaped forward before the last molecule of water dropped to the ground, landing himself on the grass before his house. Mew then turned to the right and looked at his abundant garden of fruits and vegetables, where he pointed his right pointer finger out at it and said "Let's get some strawberries for today." He pulls up about twenty strawberries, one for each successful run on the mountains, and brings them before his face. He decides to eat one of them and chew it for a few seconds, humming to himself happily before swallowing it and saying "Alright, they've grown well this year."

After plucking out another strawberry with his powers to replace the one he ate, Mew walks forward and carries the strawberries behind himself in a bundle before he held one hand out and opened the door to his house. Inside there was a small hallway with marble tiles leading to the back of the house, where Mew's bedroom and bathroom were, and to the left was the living room with the kitchen behind it. The TV was on with the local news, though to be specific they were currently talking about the weather around the world.

Mew walked to the kitchen and turned on the sink with a twist of the right handle, bringing in cold water that he uses to clean the strawberries, and he places them all in a bowl moments later. Mew then plugged in a blender and used his powers to move the strawberries into it while he walked over to the refrigerator and opened it to examine the contents. "Lets see here…I think an omelet sounds good today." Mew remarks before pulling out eggs, chopped ham, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and some shredded cheddar.

He worked hard to cook the eggs as needed in a buttered skillet, putting the rest of the ingredients inside of it and folding it over once he was all done. All the while, he used his powers to move a jug of lemonade from the fridge and pour it into the blender which he then turned on after putting on the lid. As the blender went off beside him, Mew finished up his omelet and put it on a glass plate from the cupboard above him. Once the blender was done, Mew put his strawberry lemonade in a glass and took it with him to the living room, where he sat down on the couch and prepared to eat.

But before he could do that, Mew leaned back against the couch and pointed towards the kitchen, saying to himself "Almost forgot the hot sauce." He pulled a bottle of tobasco from the counter and brought it over by focusing on the glass itself, and once he had it in his hand he promptly pulled himself forward and opened the lid. He sniffed the hot sauce from within, and remarked with a determined grin and an over-the-top voice "Today I will finally conquer you, vile hot sauce!"

Mew pours some of it onto his omelet and then uses a fork to cut into it, the gooey cooked cheese stringing out from within while some of the other ingredients struggled to stay inside. Mew lifted the omelet bite into his mouth and chewed it, twitching a bit from the hot sauce before he inevitably swallows the bite. "Ha…That wasn't so bad." Mew remarked, though it was clear he was putting on a brave act for himself as it didn't take very long for his body to start sweating.

Mew basically tries to ignore this and take a drink of his strawberry lemonade to cool his body down, but after the first gulp of his drink he lets out an exasperated gasp before slanting his eyebrows and remarking "I've fought demons and Earth's natural disasters, and yet hot sauce is almost like my Kryptonite…" Though even with that comparison, Mew wasn't going to let his omelet go to waste as he continued to eat into it, taking drinks of his lemonade to keep himself from being burned out from the hot sauce. At the very least, the core of the omelet tasted fantastic.

By the time Mew was done with his omelet, he was satisfied with himself and leaned back against the couch while folding his arms behind his head, stating as he felt fullness in his stomach "Even though I don't NEED to eat, there's a lot to be said about making something for yourself. Thank you for your contributions, mother nature!" He gave his praises to nature itself with a quick gesture towards the sky past his ceiling, and then he lifted himself up and looked at the TV while remarking "Lets see what is going now…"

He raised his eyebrows in curiosity at what was being reported at the moment. "Hurricane about to hit the southeast coast? Seems a bit early for one of those, it's still a couple weeks away from summer…" Mew remarks to himself while rubbing his chin, while the TV showed people beginning evacuations of the major cities, though there were some blatant close-ups of the people holding up signs saying 'We're waiting for you, mysterious savior!' Or something along those likes.

Seeing this as his signal, Mew grins and pulls his hand away from his chin while stating humbly "Oh come on guys, I was going to help you out without that bit of attention you threw my way." He was about ready to head for the door when a dark, raspy voice reaches into his mind and remarks _"They call you a savior now…But their hopes in you will be dashed once you eviscerate them one by one. You should just let the hurricane sweep them away into the sky, save them the trouble of having their expectations betrayed." _

The voice belonged to the ethereal form of the Dark King's demonic ally who referred to himself as 'D.', and the being currently resided within Mew's mind against the boy's will, doing so for the last two years. However, while one would think that Mew would be fazed by 'D.'s' words, the boy instead brushed them off with a shrug despite the demon trying to latch onto his right shoulder with a claw from beyond to add to the eeriness of his voice. "You're really still trying to pull this? It's been two years, get some new material already."

The nonchalance Mew offered to the demon was of no use, as 'D.' was silent for just a moment before he sneered and said _"You can brush me off as much as you want, boy…But you cannot avoid me forever. Either you'll get angry or die of old age…Either way, I get your body, and I can definitely be patient for the second one. Hell, you may likely die sooner than that." _Mew was busy walking out of his house while the demon talk, and with a smile he says "If you say so."

He then takes off from his house and goes high up into the sky so he wouldn't run into any planes or get seen down below by others. Looking to the right, Mew gestures out with one hand and comments "Just need to go that way to find the hurricane. I got probably ten minutes before it hits, so I need to get there in half that amount of time!" With an enthusiastic proclamation Mew folds his arms out to the side and then flies off as fast as necessary through the air towards the east.

But while he flew, he thought about what 'D.' had said to him. It was true what the demon mentioned though. If Mew got angry enough times, the barriers keeping the demon from latching onto his subconscious and taking full control would break. Death was also another means of allowing the demon control. Mew felt very concerned about the demon's presence even though he has learned how to not be affected by the creature's words, though this came at a bit of a cost…

Mew hasn't had much contact with others in the last two years. It's been nothing but time spent in isolation at his own home, with only the times he's gone out to stop natural disasters breaking up the pace of his day. But he had to do this to prevent 'D.' from having ammunition against him. "It doesn't bother me…too much…" Mew murmurs to himself at the end of his thoughts, his melancholy expression and glance aside being replaced by one of widened focus as he looks ahead of himself and sees his target.

A massive hurricane, quite possibly a Class 3 one, was swirling it's wide clouded mass towards the southeast coast of the continent. Violent rains and winds were hitting the ocean waters down below, and the eye of the hurricane was black and swollen. Mew quickly flies over to above the eye of the hurricane and pays attention to the direction it was moving. "Counterclockwise rotation this time? That's pretty rare around here…Oh well, time to get to work!" Mew puts on a chipper attitude as he holds his arms down and concentrates on the hurricane.

The violent winds and such are no match for Mew's control over the elements, as the boy quickly grasped hold of the hurricane with his powers and began to slow down the pace of it's rotation by pushing the clouds and winds in the opposite direction. Mew was so nonchalant about the whole affair being taken care of so easily that he spent more time conversing with himself about various things. "Hmmm, I wonder if they'll actually name this hurricane considering how quickly it'll go away? It's the first one of the year, so they'd probably name it something starting with 'A' if they do so…"

Lifting his eyes up and contorting his chin a little, Mew then says "Hurricane Albert? …Alex? Alvis? Amanda? …How many hurricanes have been given girl names, now that I think about it? Maybe I should look that up when I get home. Thank god there was enough metal and spare wiring around the mountain to make my own wi-fi device, otherwise I'd have to pay a ton for service." Mew was so deep into his own conversation that he didn't realize for a bit that he had already dealt with the hurricane by the time he was done mentioning the wi-fi.

Flinching momentarily, Mew looks down and says "Oh right, the hurricane…It's already gone. I should've timed it, I need to break my record from last year." Folding his arms together and nodding his head twice in content, Mew remarks "Welp, job well-done Mew, you saved the south coast again. I know I shouldn't be counting, but I've think I've helped them out more times than any other part of the world."

Tilting his head a bit and tapping his right foot against a platform of air he just created, Mew thinks back a bit and says "Then again, I do help Africa out a lot with their dust storms and famine…I am seriously trying to keep a tally of how many times I've helped certain places out. God that sounds so egotistical…" Mew sighs and laughs off his silly little conversation by laying some fingers against his forehead and shaking it, but then he pulls them away when he hears the sudden cheers of the people down below.

He can hear them this far up because a few moments ago he set up some invisible wind tunnels that can carry the noise up to him. Tapping one hand against his cheek, Mew pondered just dipping down to see how the people were celebrating. It would only take a moment, so in the end Mew decides on just going down past the clouds for at least a minute. If he kept his distance, he wouldn't be spotted anyways, and thanks to the pair of long-range binoculars he happened to have tucked away in his shirt at the moment he'd be able to look down at his fellow humans.

Pulling the binoculars out from the collar of his shirt, Mew looks down upon placing them in front of his eyes, stating in a curious tone "Of all the things I wish I could use my elements for, increasing how far I can see is definitely one of them…I guess making these binoculars is good enough compensation." Looking down towards the ground, Mew finds multiple people standing around cars and on the back of trucks, happily celebrating the fact that another hurricane was dealt with.

The people were kind enough to have brought streamers and fireworks, making Mew say with a light chuckle "Heh, they really have a lot of faith in me…Wish I could at least let them see their savior, but that's the con of being an unsung hero. Now let's see here…" Mew moves the binoculars around a bit to see more of the people, but then stops once he sees a rather distressing sight from his point of view. Two humans, both about his age, maybe a little older and both a boy and girl respectively, were in the middle of a loving embrace, signifying that they were boyfriend and girlfriend respectively.

At first Mew just let out a quiet, bothered grumble and tried to ignore the matter, but then the boy pulled out a ring and proposed to the girl much to her excitement, and Mew's grumble became more pronounced and his lips stretched out into an annoyed frown. However, it wasn't until the two locked lips for a rather…unnecessarily long time that Mew's grumble could barely be contained by his mouth and he let out a very, VERY bothered sigh and pulled the binoculars away from his face to show that his eyelids were shut halfway and he had a very clear expression of jealousy on him…

_Afternoon…_

A few hours later, we find Mew slumped in his couch with the same expression of jealousy on his face he had earlier. He was mumbling to himself "Yeeeeep…All alone…Nothing but myself and a demon in my head…" With his hands laid on the arms of his couch he sighs and says right away "Man…I wonder how Riku's doing out in space. Hopefully he didn't go and get himself killed, but he hasn't contacted me since he left and all…"

Thinking about things through a bit, Mew suddenly has a spark of inspiration and says "Wait a second, perhaps I can create another clone, one that can be my friend! …Actually, I wonder if I could create a clone that's a girl?" When he realizes that what he just said was incredibly creepy, Mew shakes his head and punches himself hard enough in the side of his face to knock himself down onto the side of his body on the couch, with his head knocking against the arm of the couch for a moment.

After a few seconds of contemplation over whatever the hell could have driven him to even consider such insanity, Mew pulls himself upright and snaps his right fingers, stating in a cheerful tone of voice "I can have plenty of fun by myself! Lets see what's on TV!" Mew then uses a spark of electricity from his fingertips to turn the TV on, and he crosses his legs as he lays his feet atop the table and leans back to see what is on.

"_We now return to our 1# rated show, 'Love Hospital General'!" _The announcer claims, and Mew whistled in somewhat forced intrigue and said "Oh nice, a soap opera! Yeeeeep, living the life here in Mew's abode!" He decided, nonetheless, to watch what was going on in today's episode. Right now, there were some unnecessarily dramatic close-ups of a woman's face as she cupped her hands together and said "No! Say it's not so, Joseph!"

"I am sorry my dear…But I am not an only child. All this time, the person you've loved…Is my twin brother Alexander!" The man named Joseph admitted, and there was an over-the-top drum sound before the woman gasped and admitted "T-Twin brother…? How long have you known about this?" "I didn't learn of this until recently…I'm sorry to have deceived you…" Joseph said.

"But Joseph…If your brother acted like you, and looked a lot like you…Then doesn't that mean in the end that I really have loved you all along?" The woman said as she extended a hand out to touch the man, but Joseph shrugged her off and said "Our love is not to be, for you see…I am actually a robot surgeon from the future!" This news should have thrown the woman into a state of shock, but instead she suddenly licks her lips lustfully and forcibly turns the man around while grasping his shoulders tightly and stating "Oh darling…I have my own secret…"

"I have an INCREDIBLE fetish in regards to machine…So why don't we play a little role reversal and you can turn _me_ on?" The woman's seductive nature overpowered Joseph's robotic senses, and the two locked into a kiss and dropped onto the floor in a matter of seconds. Moans were heard deeply from below, and Mew just stared in blatant annoyance before shutting the TV off instantly. With a nonchalant shrug, Mew said "Oh who am I kidding, the show went downhill after Maxwell was revealed to be from Mars."

Mew then turned to the right and noticed a radio nearby, and flicked a finger towards it to send a spark that would turn it on while remarking "Some music should do me some good." With a little bit of fine tuning, Mew gets a clear signal and was just in time for the next song to play. _"Welcome to Channel 97.5, where we are currently in the middle of our Last Century Classics Marathon! Next up is 'Love Me Too' by The Beatles!" _

Once the DJ had finished his announcement, Mew immediately went back to his expression of annoyance, and only let the song play for ten seconds before he shut the radio off and said with slight exasperation "Ok, my patience is being tested here, obviously. That's fine, I still have video games, and there's no way I can run into that stuff there." Running into the back of his room, Mew grabs a portable system and then heads back into the couch to sit down, laid back, and decided to enjoy himself.

However, it didn't take very long for him to remark "Oh? I'm about to reach max rank with the main heroine. I wonder what happens if…I…." Mew's enthusiasm is quickly shot as he closes his eyelids, nonchalantly shuts the portable system off, and then lays it on the table. He then pulls back, lays his hands on his legs, and remains silent for just a few more seconds before he looks up towards the sky, puts on his best smirk and says nonchalantly "If you want to not be subtle universe, then you'd be better off just dropping a hammer that says 'Here, take this gift you lonely, pathetic cretin!' right on top of my head."

"…Unless this is all an attempt to prepare me for that cliché'd moment where all of a sudden a girl that is right for me appears at my doorstep. Or they contact me via my mind, or crash in through the ceiling." Mew lists off a number of things to reassure himself that all those coincidences from earlier were leading to something, and he hopefully looks at the door and the ceiling before poking into his own mind to see if someone was trying to contact him. Nothing was successful, naturally…Which leads to Mew laying deflated against the couch for another few hours…

_Evening…_

…In fact, he didn't end up eating either lunch or dinner by the time the dead of night rolled around. Mew, however, stops his acts of self-depression and leans forward on the couch, scratching the back of his head and saying "I got to stop doing this to myself once a week. I'm wasting days worrying about something I cannot control. For now, I should just go to bed and-" As Mew began to pull himself off of the couch, he suddenly heard a voice calling to him from somewhere unknown.

"_Hello? Heeeeeeello? Can you hear me?" _The voice was clearly feminine, and with everything else that he could take into consideration so far Mew was right to raise his right hand up and remark "Niiiice try 'D.' I applaud you for trying to copy a female voice, but I'm not falling for it." _"What? Are you seriously assuming I'm that demon?" _The voice quickly replies in disbelief, which surprised Mew right away and grabbed his attention more than it did before.

"_That voice…Impossible…That bitch hasn't died of old age?!" _'D.' quickly chimed into the conversation in a surprisingly puzzled tone of voice, and Mew said to the feminine voice in his head in a serious tone "…Ok, you got my attention. Who are you?" _"Well I'm glad we settled that matter quickly. Forgive me for intruding your mind like this young Elemental Overlord, but I'm afraid I cannot divulge my identity just yet. However, I have come to you with an urgent request, and I think you'll be interested in what I have to say…"_

_Next Time: The Secluded Tribe_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Present Meets the Past**

"_This mysterious woman knows that I'm the Elemental Overlord…Whatever she wants from me, it must be a dangerous task if she requires my level of power." _Mew thought to himself after the woman made her request for help known, and with a nod of his head while he sat back down onto his couch Mew responded to the woman with a joking tone "You know, you're a few hours late in contacting me." This caught the woman off-guard as he murmured out in his mind _"I-I beg your pardon?"_

"You know, I was talking earlier about a girl contacting me via my mind after a bunch of cliché'd coincidences. It's kind of…Ah you know what, never mind, it's a stupid story." Mew waves his hand down and laughs off what he was just saying, and the woman bluntly told him afterwards _"No arguments here…" _Though when Mew raises his eyebrows at how insulting that response came off the woman quickly catches herself and says _"Err…I mean…Look, I don't have much time to waste here. Are you going to let me speak or not?" _

"S-Sorry, fire away." Mew said in an apologetic manner. _"That's better. Now anyways…I need your help with something major. There is a tyrant that has been terrorizing my people for a long time, and I have found myself unable to do anything to help them out. You, on the other, just might be powerful enough to stop him." _"You require my fighting capabilities? That's interesting and all, but I feel like you are keeping a lot of information away from me." Mew replies while rubbing his chin in thought.

"_This woman cannot be trusted. That siren is just attempting to lure you in!" _'D.' states with the uttermost urgency in his voice, but the woman quickly tells him with a quiet, nonchalant voice _"I see you're still barely clinging on to your existence, 'D.' And the way you speak still has not changed…I thought for sure two-thousand years of being bound to those chains would've been enough to end you." "You witch…When I take over this pathetic boy's body, I will silence you first!" _'D.' replies with a coarse and violent voice.

All the while, Mew raised his left eyebrow, speaking out only when the demon was done by mentioning "Ok, so now I know you two have a history, or at the least the woman knows about your past." _"…Look, I wish I could speak for a little longer to get you to trust me, but you're just going to have to suck it up and come here to get more information." _The woman replies, combining and apologetic and blunt tone together to create something rather bizarre. Laying his head back against the couch and forcing a yawn, Mew says to the woman "I don't know, I'm feeeeeling pretty tired tonight. How far is the trip I'd have to make to reach you?"

"_Fufufu, you'd be quite surprised to learn that I am not very far from your house in the mountains, young Mew." _The woman revealed information that actually ignited a spark of interest in Mew's mind, and the boy quickly lifted his head up and said curiously "I doubt you're anywhere near my house or I'd sense you, so I don't know how you possibly could know that about me. But I'll bother you about that more later. Just how far is 'not very far'?"

"_My people and I live directly above the North Pole." _The woman's response earned an immediate reply from Mew of "Interesting. So you live in a cloaked location, cause I've been at the North Pole enough times to know there's nothing in the sky." _"Only I can allow you to see and enter the city, I'm afraid. So what are you waiting for? Kick that keister of yours off the couch and get on up here." _The woman says in a rather fired-up manner.

However, Mew instead leans back against the couch and folds his arms behind his head, closing his eyelids before stating "I'll come in the morning. I really want to get some rest and be ready…Plus it gives me time to think about whether I want to help you out or not." _"Morning…? W-Well…I suppose I can wait until then, but at the very least give me an estimate on when you'll be at the North Pole so I can determine when to contact you again." _The woman, though briefly exasperated by Mew's request, chose to go along with it for the sake of moving things along.

"Nine o'clock. I'll be around the North Pole around then, guaranteed." Mew says with nonchalance, and the woman states to him afterwards _"I'll make sure to set my alarm then. But you better not be pulling my leg, or there will be dire consequences." _With a gesture of his right hand out Mew says "Any more information you want to give me before you go, babe?"

"_Yes. Don't ever call me babe again." _The woman sounded rather lax in her response, which leads to Mew smiling and pointing out "I'm just playing around anyways. I'm a man who fulfills his promises, so there's no need for you to make threats to convince me to come along…That is, assuming you can be trusted." _"That's good to hear. And yes, you can trust me. Before I disconnect, I shall let you know one particular detail…I am someone who was very close to the original Elemental Overlord." _With that rather surprising bit of news, the woman stops being a presence in Mew's mind.

"…Someone close to the original Overlord, huh?" Mew pulls a hand out from behind his head to rub his chin, remarking not long afterwards "She knows I'm suspicious of her, so for her to so willingly reveal something like that even though that's way too easy of a way to gain my trust…Hmmm." Mew lifts himself off the couch and continues to hold his hand against his chin as he makes his way to his bed at the back of the house.

Plopping down atop his bed sheets and covers with enough force to make them become ruffled, Mew lays his hands down on both sides of his body and closed his eyelids, accepting the darkness of nightfall outside as he prepared to go into a deep sleep. _"You're going to regret it if you get involved in that witch's affairs." _'D.' tries to continue to reach Mew's ears, but the boy just yawned and said "Sounds to me like you're afraid she'll bring about the end of you. Good, YOU can have that fear with you tonight, I'll just spend time laying back and thinking about what that woman said."

And that is exactly what Mew did for a few hours until he eventually decided there wasn't enough information to go on and going in circles was rather boring, so he fell asleep until he knew it would be time to wake up. But when he went into a deep enough slumber, he began to have dreams of some interesting events. The first event depicted a woman, likely the one who was speaking to him earlier, sitting on a couch with a bunch of beer and liquor bottles laid out on a table in front of her. In an apologetic, echoing tone she says _"I'm sorry for dragging you into this with a half-truth…But the fact of the matter is that I do not want to lose another of my children to that monster." _

The second event showed a different girl with a bo-staff confronting him outside a temple, where she proclaimed defiantly _"An outsider like you has no right to fight him! Now get out of my way!" _The next event sees Mew facing a man with green-skin inside of a room filled with trees and a pagoda, with the man drawing his bronze katana while remarking in a quiet but upset tone _"All you are doing is bringing ruin to my people by bringing her along with you." _

The fourth event saw Mew locking blades with a man with pale skin and pointed ears, and he said in a mocking manner _"You're pathetic human. You don't really want to save that girl, you just want to find a reason to justify your continued existence!" _The final event saw Mew being crushed between two gigantic icebergs while a metallic man with dreadlock hair held his hand up and proclaimed _"Your efforts are in vain! In fact, once I have ascended to godhood, I will have no reason to keep this planet around!" _

When these events had finished transpiring in his head, Mew was pretty much ready to wake up by that point, and he jolted his upper body upright from the bed with eyes widened for a moment. Glancing to the right to check the sunlight creeping in through his windows despite the fog outside, Mew comments in a curious tone "…I don't think I've had a dream like that for a long while. Hmmm, this will definitely be an interesting trip to the city if that was a sign of things to come…"

Rubbing his chin for a bit while focusing on getting awake, Mew takes a brief glance at his clock and notices that it was at least 8:45 am. Flinching in surprise, Mew said to himself "Y-Yikes…I need to hustle up to the North Pole. Guess I'll have to skip breakfast for today." Leaping out of his bed with an unnecessary lift of both of his feet towards the ceiling, Mew lands on the floor and then rushes right for the door of his house, heading outside and using his powers to lock the door behind him.

He then leaps into the air and takes flight high above the clouds, turning to the right and saying "North Pole is…to the north…Hmmm, shouldn't be feeling nervous, I'm already saying stupid shit." He then laughs off his little stupid remark and pulls back on his arms before thrusting forward through the air at a comfortable speed so he won't push away the clouds and cause people to notice him flying. "Wish I had other clothes besides this shirt and pants. Oh well, nice clothes aren't really my style anyways." Mew commented to himself to pass the time.

About ten minutes later of boring conversation with himself, Mew made it to the North Pole, where the sub-arctic waters are plastered with chunks of ice and towering glacier mountains. But since he still had a few minutes before the woman would contact him, Mew floated in place in the chilling sky and folded his arms together, his body not reacting at all to the cold. "Ahhh…The chilling winds are so nice around here. I should come up here and lay on an iceberg sometime." Mew spoke out with a relaxed sigh at the end.

"…_You have an odd taste in relaxation, though I suppose your powers grant you the right to those choices." _The woman's voice reaches Mew's mind with an exasperated tone, and Mew lifts his eyelids up and says "Oh hey mystery woman. You're contacting me early." _"And I'm contemplating whether or not it's a good idea to ask for your help…But honestly, my only other option is too many worlds away, so I'll just take what I can get." _The woman says bluntly, a disgruntled sigh being heard from her at the end.

"Something up?" Mew inquired with a tilt of his head, and the woman tells him right away _"Grr…I had an argument with my daughter this morning, so I'm not in a good mood. Look, I'm going to allow you to see our city, and after that it's up to you to find the temple in the far north part of the city. That's where I'll be. You're welcome to take your time and check the sights. By the way, if you see a giant pyramid, you haven't gone far enough north. Now then…Here we go." _

In a matter of seconds, after a blink of the eyelids, Mew finds his vision changed, with the sky being covered in a tint of red as an aura of blue flames surround a gigantic, upside-down half-sphere. It was clear that Mew was looking at the underside of the floating city, and he quickly flew up past the side of it to make his way to the top. There he finds solid ground and lands on it without observing any other sights at the moment. The woman then drops the vision she allowed Mew to have, stating to him _"Welcome to our city, young Mew. I look forward to seeing you face-to-face." _"Heh, haven't you been observing me this whole time?" Mew said jokingly, cracking a smile before the woman replied dryly _"…Just get your ass over here when you can."_

The woman then stopped talking for the time being, allowing Mew a chance to lay his arms out beside his body and stroll ahead on this ground of pristine glass tiles, and he looked down and saw that underneath them lied minerals of many shapes and sizes. More than likely the whole city wasn't built out of those minerals, since something technological deep within would have to keep it afloat. Lifting his head up, it wasn't very long until Mew reached the city itself, and he was surprised by what he found.

The city was a mixture of old-time and modern buildings with the houses being huts made of sticks and cloths and most of them being two-story in size and having windows of many different colored glass on the second floor specifically. The more modern buildings, eerily similar to the ones one would find on Earth, were used for stuff like shopping, teaching, and recreational activities. The biggest thing that caught Mew's attention was a four-story mall that stretched out for at least a mile and seemed to be split into two halls.

Walking towards it so he can see the name of the place, Mew sees that it's called "Earth Import Mall: Items Throughout the Annuls of History". This actually grabbed a great deal of interest from Mew, who decided to look around and examine the citizens of this city. All of them looked perfectly human on the outside, but not very many of them wore modern day clothes like he did. There were people in colonial outfits, Chinese robes, and even a few in togas. And yet it was Mew that got the brunt of the suspect glares from the people.

"Figures…They know right away that I'm not one of them. But right now I'm not too worried about that." Mew whispers to himself as he turns away from the people looking at him, though after he does so he hangs his head down a bit and thinks about one particular detail that caught his eye on most of the people walking around. "What is up with those strange bracelets they have on? Each one had a different looking stone on them…And I think that second girl I saw in my dream was wearing one." Mew commented to himself.

Shaking his head a bit and then looking to the right, Mew remembered what he had to do and said "I know who I need to see in order to get answers…So best to just keep going North for now. I won't get anything from the people while they're looking at me like this." Mew thus moves away from the mall and goes north through the city, going past the houses until he reaches a rather wide-open expanse of glass around a tall, blue crystal pyramid. The pyramid reached very high into the sky, but was not fashioned with slants on the sides but rather square perimeters for each of it's many floors.

Below the pyramid was a glowing neon core that went uncontained by any shape, and it sent wavy energy throughout the underground via streams. "This must be the power source of the city…I guess it's magitechnology keeping this city afloat." Mew comments on before he lifted his head up and looked at the towering pyramid whose entrance was off to the right of him. "This is the pyramid she was talking about. Wonder what it's used for…"

Mew walks past the pyramid from the left side per the woman's instruction and continues going north, glancing at the pyramid once when he sensed some interesting things within it briefly. Past the pyramid, Mew traversed a small part of the city until he ran across what he assumed was the temple that the woman wanted him to be at. He had to make an assumption at the moment because from the outside, the place looked like a grand cathedral with a rainbow-colored stained glass window and some stain glass portraits of some unfamiliar old men on both sides of the building. It seemed more like a church than a temple, and Mew had every right to assume that the old men were perhaps the gods the people worshipped.

The only way to know for sure was to go inside and meet this mysterious woman. Walking up to the front doors, which were brown, gigantic, and made out of pure steel, Mew pushes the right door open and hears it creak with an echo throughout the temple, which would definitely be enough to alert the woman wherever she was. Mew moved forward, looking around and getting a closer look at the mosaic glass and the crystals that were underneath them. Ten people in total were depicted in the glass, but not a single one of their identities were known.

The pillars keeping this temple/cathedral/whatever stable were rounded and made of mosaic crystal. It's not very long before Mew starts focusing at the very other end of the temple, where there was a gigantic mosaic depicting a man that was definitely not mysterious despite his face not being shown. It was a legendary man with angelic armor and wings, and he faced the darkness ahead of him without looking back. He was also depicted with a holy glow, and Mew murmured out "That's the original Elemental Overlord…"

Mew is then forced to pause midway through the temple when a familiar voice began to speak, most likely towards him. "Two-thousand years ago, the Elemental Overlord and the Dark King faced off, bringing into the conflict the forces of Light and Darkness from their respective tribes. The seven elemental tribes were also drawn in, making it an all-out war that spread across multiple worlds and nearly brought an end to both of their legacies…But purposefully, the legends of that time did not mention the involvement of another particular tribe…"

Looking to the very end of the room below the giant mosaic, Mew sees a woman around his height with aquamarine hair shaped into a bowl cut with only a few inches hanging off the back and sides of her head. Her main article of clothing, a baggy aquamarine robe, had ancient looking pink clouds on the bottom half. She also wore baggy blue sweat pants and wooden sandals on her bare feet, and a bracelet could barely be seen hanging out past the lip of her right sleeve. Mew walks towards the woman as she continues to speak.

"One tribe focused entirely on the inner energies of the body, hoping to harness it's potential for a multitude of uses. Ten Sages governed not just the use of these inner energies, but each one of them acted as solo observers for all the tribes, including their own. But in the end those stubborn old fools were too foolish to notice that they had been consumed by greed and were keeping all the power and secrets to themselves. However, that came to an end when the Dark King killed them all in self-defense."

"However, the daughter of one of the sages took over as leader of the entire tribe, and began to allow her people to have more access to the power of one's inner energies. But because of the war that ravaged the nine other tribes, the daughter chose to take her people and migrate to another world, particularly the Earth where the new Elemental Overlord was prophesized to be born. And two-thousand years later, perhaps the day would come when the daughter would get to come face-to-face with the one who inherited the legacy of her husband."

With that somewhat happy remark, the woman starts to turn around to look at Mew, who was now just ten feet away from her. The rest of her appearance was thus revealed. She had a pretty youthful face, making her look like she was in her mid 20's, and she had glittering lipstick and crystalline blue eyes. On her right ear was an earring representing the moon, and on the left was one for the sun. above her forehead was a bang of pink hair shaped like a yin or yang symbol. Also, her breasts were big enough that they pushed the chest of her robe forward and revealed quite a bit of cleavage.

The woman laid her fingertips atop her breasts and smiled at Mew, saying to him in a happy, greeting tone "Hello, young Mew…I am Auris Aurora, and I welcome you to Sancturia, the grand Aurian City." Mew blinked a few times in natural confusion, mostly out of how young the woman looked. Auris sensed his confusion and shut her eyelids in a sultry manner, saying to him in a teasing tone "Were you expecting someone older looking?"

Folding his arms together and putting on a smile to show that he wasn't intending to be offensive with his next remark, Mew said "Well you do look young enough to be my older sister, truth be told." "Hmmm…Is that so? …Pardon my upfront nature, but I would appreciate it if you would stand in that pose for a few moments." Auris says while looking across Mew's body with intrigue, leading to Mew tilting his head for a moment and saying "Ummm…Ok then?"

Auris then stepped forward and took her hands to Mew's shoulders, pressing her fingers together against them twice before sliding them down across the rest of the arms, where she pinched the muscles tightly to see how firm they were. She then kneeled down and did the same thing to Mew's legs and thighs, though she patted her fingertips on Mew's rear briefly. Auris then lifted herself up and put herself on level with Mew's face, giving another sultry smile before she lifts her right hand up and without warning throws out a strong punch to Mew's forehead.

The punch was strong enough to create a noise, but Mew didn't flinch at all and grinned before saying "I figured you were going to try something like that." Auris pulled back her fist and admitted to the boy right away "I was just making sure that you were not a slacker. You've been training your body well, and your reflexes are almost half as good as the original Elemental Overlord's were."

"A-Almost half as good?" Mew asked with a light-hearted chuckle, and while looking down at her knuckles Auris smiled and said to him "Of course. Had they been perfectly like his, you would've dodged out of the way instead of taking it head-on. But oh well, I honestly did not expect a newbie to perfectly copy his capabilities." Auris then looked up at Mew one more time, seeing the boy with a puzzled expression on his face before glancing down at his arms again. "Hmm…" The curiosity of the woman's mind thus manifests with her taking both of her arms forward and reaching at Mew's armpits, fitting the fingertips underneath the creases of his shirt and going to tickle them at a rather frantic pace.

Whether it was because he was taken off-guard or he was just plain ticklish, Mew's cheeks puff out as he tries his hardest to contain his laughter, but fails and bursts into it merrily. Auris stops tickling him after hearing the laughter for a few seconds, but when she withdraws her arms she only smiles partway and sniffs once in a melancholic manner. Mew, once in control of his laughter, catches his breath and looks at Auris, noticing that she was crying just a little bit. "I-Is something the matter?" Mew inquired.

"…You laugh a lot like he used to." Auris comments on, followed by her wiping the tears away with her sleeve before obviously forcing a smile on her face and remarking to Mew "I must apologize. It was very rude of me to do that. Right now, you're probably wondering so many things, and I should be providing you with answers instead of acting like you are the original Elemental Overlord." Mew nodded his head, commenting while firming his arm fold "It's fine…Though you aren't kidding when you say I have a lot of questions on my mind. I've never heard anything about you or the Aurians until now, after all."

"It was a purposely sealed legacy for a reason, young Mew. But I will allow you to ask me any question between here and my home, at which point I will be take the reins and telling you exactly why I wanted you to come here." Auris said gently while beginning to walk past the side of Mew's body, but Mew turned around and asked her right away "Before we get out of this temple, I want to know what you used to contact me." Auris quickly stopped in place and turned her head to glance over her right shoulder, answering easily to the boy "It was an orb left behind by the original Elemental Overlord, with it I can contact him or his successors whenever I am in dire need of assistance."

The use of a plural on successor grabbed Mew's attention, but he would leave that matter alone for now as Auris turned around and continued to head for the temple exit. Mew followed her, asking her as the two left the building "So I guess I should get the most important one out of the way…How exactly does Aurian society function?" "An excellent question. But this will take up a lot of time." Auris forewarns.

As the two stroll through the Aurian city, Auris gestures out to the houses and begins to explain "Long ago, Aurians focused entirely on aura. Everyday life revolved around learning how it works in relation to the body. But ever since I brought Sanctoria to your Earth, we've not needed to worry as much about learning how aura works. Instead, we pass down the teachings of our forefathers to generation after generation while also focusing on following the history of your planet, which are part of the daily teachings in our schools."

"So that mall I ran into…" "Yes, it is where we sell stuff that you'd find across the Earth. My apologies, but we've had to steal quite a bit from your planet up until the point that you started making technology." Auris replies before Mew can give his own answer. Mew then gestures his right hand out and inquires "But now I'm wondering why your people aren't just living on the planet. Seems like it'd be more convenient than staying in a cloaked city."

"Two-thousand years ago your society wasn't exactly in a condition to accept over a million people from another world. Besides, mixing Aurian and human genetics, despite how similar our bodies look, would result in a dead lineage in a matter of generations, and your planet would've become overpopulated very quickly. In other words, it was a necessary precaution to not interfere with the development of your world." Auris explains, but then goes on to add-on in relation to that "But it's not like I deny the right for Aurians to go down to Earth. All I ask is that they wait until they are at least twenty and they don't fall in love with any human."

"Alright, so everything's making sense to me so far…Now what's up with those bracelets everyone is wearing?" Mew moved on to the next question without much pause, and Auris tells him rather quickly "Those bracelets are a staple amongst all Aurians, regardless of gender. Each one has on it an Aura Drive, which is capable of harnessing the potential of an Aurian and manifesting different abilities from it that can cooperate perfectly with their aura. The Aura Drives are split into five tiers depending on how powerful they are, and I am in charge of handing out each one to the worthy candidates. There are rare instances where an Aurian is capable of wielding two drives, however."

Once Auris' explanation was at an end, Mew points down at her bracelet and says "You mean like you used to, right?" Auris lifts said arm up with way too little time between that inquiry and her reaction, and she turns the bracelet to reveal two spots where broken stones are at. "I had two drives once before…The Aegis Dragoon and the Crimson Knight drives. But they were destroyed by some powerful foes. It doesn't bother me too much though, I'm already a master of Aura, so I still have plenty of strength at my disposal."

Though she spoke with nonchalance, Mew could tell that Auris was hiding something regarding what happened with her Aura Drives. Once more, that'd just be something he'd bring up later. "Ok, I've asked about your society and the bracelets, now it's time to ask questions about the lady of the hour herself…Like why you look so young despite apparently being alive two-thousand years ago." Auris looks back at Mew and says to him with a bit of irritation in her voice as her right eye twitches noticeably "You know, it's a pretty ballsy move to comment on a woman's age and appearance like that."

"R-Right, I know that, but it's a pretty pressing question." Mew says, barely sounding affected by Auris' response in the process. The woman then turns back and brushes the side of her hair with her fingertips while hiding her smile from the compliment, and she states to answer Mew's question "I've had eternal youth, eternal beauty and agelessness ever since I was born. Though I've lived for two-thousand years, my body has not changed a wink since I turned twenty-five…Minus my hair-style, of course."

"Hmmm…And you were the husband of the Elemental Overlord, correct? How exactly did you two meet?" Mew quickly went on to say, and with a girlish chuckle Auris says "Oh that's a very long story, but to keep it short it involved some silly political affairs between the Ten Sages and the elemental tribes, and eventually those affairs blossomed into genuine love…But not before we beat each other up a bit. I used to be such a spit-fire back then, but I'd like to think I've gotten better about that with age."

As she says that, two kids run by with a book lit on fire in one of their raised hands, and Auris pauses briefly and widens her eyes before proclaiming furiously "Hey you crazy brats! You think books from Earth grow on trees?! I'll wrestle you both to the ground if you don't stop this crazy shit!" But the kids continued to run, and Auris folds her arms into her sleeves and blushes after a sigh before stating to the chuckling Mew apologetically "…Like I said, I got better about it. It's a hard trait to get rid of…"

"I didn't say anything." Mew says as the two of them continue on, though him slipping another laugh through before he spoke gave a clear enough signal to what he felt. After an awkward pause, Mew folds his arms behind his head and says to Auris "Ok, so now there's something here that REALLY doesn't make any sense to me. You and the Elemental Overlord were lovers, that much is clear…But if that's the case then why did we have to become the destined successors? Shouldn't you have had a child? Did something happen to them instead? Was the Elemental Overlord terrible in bed?"

But before he could get an answer, Auris stopped herself before a two-story hut with a blue cloth acting as the door and turned around. "Sorry, I'll have to provide more answers later. Welcome to the Aurora Residence, now it's time for me to take control of our conversation." Auris said rather quickly, and Mew got the suspicion that she had timed this on purpose. The act of her politely brushing open the cloth and gesturing her hand into her house with an innocent smile just provided more evidence to this suspicion.

Nevertheless, Mew did feel that hearing the plight of Auris was better than getting answers and he proceeded to walk into the house. Inside there was a small living room with a glass mosaic table capable of fitting dishes for four people and two couches on both sides of it, both of them leather and green. There was a television to the left of the couches against a wall, and there was a doorway into the kitchen to the right of the TV. Beside that doorway was a curved staircase that led to the second floor, and overall the place just had a happy, homely feel to it.

Auris walked past Mew and gestured to the left couch, saying to him as she continued on to the kitchen "Sit down, I'll be getting us some stuff to drink." Mew kindly did just that, plopping himself down on the soft cold leather and letting out a relaxed sigh before whispering to himself "So far things aren't too bad, even if I can tell Auris is hiding a lot from me. Hopefully she brings out some pretty nice juices to drink, lord knows I haven't had one in a while."

Licking his lips at the prospect of having juice, Mew watches as Auris comes back into the living room carrying a steel tray with one finger…And about a dozen bottles of beer and liquor balanced on top of it. Mew's expression quickly turns into one of wide-eyed disbelief, and even as Auris casually sits down on the opposite couch and places the tray down on the table that expression doesn't go away. Auris pops open one of the bottles and pours the liquid into the nearby glass, saying to Mew nonchalantly "Go right ahead, drink right up. We don't have to follow your planet's rules here for underage drinking." With Auris quickly downing the liquor in her cup, Mew can barely fight back the nervous sweat as he thinks to himself _"T-This is seriously happening, isn't it?"_

_Next Time: Yes, yes it is…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: A Meeting of Half-Truths**

For the next few minutes, Mew could not believe that he was in this situation. Auris was doing nothing but drinking liquor and beer in front of him so casually that it was almost disgusting. About three bottles were empty by the time Auris looked up at Mew and said to him with a glimmer in her eyes "Are you not going to join me? Do not worry about your age, we don't have drinking limitations up here in Sancturia."

"Boy I hope you aren't allowing children to drink with that attitude." Mew said while firmly folding his arms together and leaning back against the couch, but while pouring some liquor into a glass and holding it out with a bit of a blush suddenly appearing on her cheeks Auris says "Naturally. But I think 16 is an old enough age to start drinking…That's when I began, anyways." "Well not to be rude, but I don't share that view point. Any chance you have some juice to drink?" Mew inquired with a gesture out of his right hand.

"Nope. Don't be such a stiff…You should be a little more…looooose." Auris draws out her sentence a bit with an alluring tone while stretching her arms up high to make her breasts jiggle a bit, keeping a good grip on her glass as she lets out a relaxed sigh. Though Mew takes a slight note of Auris' action with her assets, he keeps a halfway serious look on his eyes as he asks "I could've sworn we were going to discuss something important, but it seems you are more content on ruining your innards."

"Hmmm? So what if I'm drinking tons of liquor or beer? You aren't an expert on how my body operates, kid." Auris says with a little bit of sass in her voice, though it was all done in jest. "Oh? Then enlighten me a bit, assuming you can stay sober enough." "Fufufu…The solution is quite simple. My body is meant to stay eternally beautiful, so any liquor or beer cannot affect my appearance, neither inwards…" Auris opens her eyelids to give Mew a sultry glare while gliding a finger across her cleavage, finishing her sentence off with an alluring "Or outwards…"

Mew blinks his eyelids twice, but then looks down at the liquor and says "I get the feeling you aren't going to reveal anything to me unless I drink some of this stuff." In a sing-song tone Auris smiles and says "Mmm-hmm~" Letting out an annoyed sigh, Mew quickly reaches his right hand out for the dark green bottle and picks it up, saying to Auris while pausing to lift his eyes up and look at her "I'm just going to have this one bottle, ok?"

"That's fine, I have plenty more of those in my private closet. But it's nice to see you being more willing to loosen up and have some fun~" Auris says in a more happy tone than before while Mew pops the cap off of the liquor with his thumb nail and stares at it for a few seconds. Gesturing the bottle out, Mew says "Bottoms up then." He then lifts the bottle up and puts the lip of it in his mouth, taking a few seconds to drink some of it down. Once he pulls it away from his face he gasps to catch his breath.

Auris has a brimming smile on her face as she lets out an intrigued hum and then inquires "How was your first taste of liquor?" Mew looks at the bottle and remarks "I suppose it was a little sweet, but nothing too wretched as I was expecting it to be." "Isn't it just the greatest taste you can experience? Liquor is a lot better when you have someone to share it with." Auris says in an incredibly merry tone of voice while holding her hands together against her chest and the blush still present on her cheeks.

After Mew takes another drink from the bottle, Auris opens her eyelids, giving Mew another sultry glare while laying a finger against the right side of her lips and remarking "But you know…It would be really great to experience this feeling day after day for the rest of our lives, wouldn't you say?" This inquiry makes Mew pull the bottle away from his face while raising his eyebrow in confusion and murmuring out a simple "Hmm?"

Auris then leans forward, allowing Mew a good glance at her cleavage again as she turns her head to the side and puts on a natural, beautiful expression while asking of the boy "Be honest now Mew…You find me attractive, don't you?" As Auris bats her eyelashes a few times playfully, Mew says to her in response honestly "You are beautiful, yes." "That's not what I am asking you. I KNOW I am beautiful. I am at least vain enough to admit something like that. What I asked you is 'Do you find me attractive?'" Auris said while leaning forward a bit more and laying her arms against the bottom of her bosom to perk them up.

Mew folds his arms together after placing the halfway emptied bottle onto the table, and he then looks at Auris and tries his hardest to fixate his eyes on her face as he hums to himself in deep thought. Auris slants her eyebrows and smiles from cheek to cheek, telling Mew in a slow, quiet, sultry voice "Does my body not tickle your fancy? Surely with your adolescence you have a taste for one with a little bit of ampleness…Or a happy, perky personality perhaps? You're the Elemental Overlord, I imagine quite well that there is an inner desire to control the greatest wildfire of all, and that is a woman."

Mew's immediate response to all this is to raise his eyebrows and attempt not to laugh at this insanity as he says to Auris "Why exactly are you doing this, Auris?" Auris grinned, telling Mew with a sparkle of glee in her eye while also resting both of her hands against her cheeks "You have to understand something about having eternal youth…Your body always has the same _desires_ that need to be satisfied. When he was still alive, the original Elemental Overlord could be quite passionate. I had many…experiences after he went away, but none of them were ever as amazing as what he was capable of."

"…Really now?" Mew said with a tiny bit of intrigue in his voice, and Auris laid a finger against the front of her lips and said "I've had many kids over the years. Trust me, the Elemental Overlord was perfectly fine with letting me have other lovers after he perished…But the thing is, it's been sixteen years since I've last had my urges fulfilled, and there's been a lot of times that I've been left tingling alone in my bed."

"Heh, ok, I get what you're looking for now, but are seriously trying to solicit a sixteen-year old to fulfill your urges?" Mew says with a rather odd chuckle, and Auris responds by lifting herself up off the couch slowly and telling him "A sixteen-year old that inherited the legacy of my former husband…Including the muscle memory of all of his experiences…" Auris walks over while leaning the back of her hand against her right hip, looking down at Mew with her happy, blushing face before she sits down on the couch beside Mew, leaning herself forward and gripping the edge of her cushion while Mew looks at her with a barely stoic glance.

"…Hmm, you know, maybe 'D.' is right about you, Auris." Mew comments on, and Auris licks her lips and lowers her head while giving another sultry look and saying "I do not know why you don't just accept this offer. I've seen your thoughts…I know you desire to not be alone, that you want to experience love and all of it's incredible perks. Just think…You can wake up to this every single day, kiss it every single night…" Auris then leaned herself forward more, sliding her body across the couch so she could place her cleavage right into Mew's right shoulder and lay one hand atop his leg.

"I could be all yours. You would even gain a daughter by accepting this bargain. And if are worried about age getting in the way, then perhaps I can wait even two more years for you to come of age…I am willing to accommodate your needs so long as you do the same for me. I can guide you through the proper motions, turn our bodies into an incredible fire of passion that hasn't been experienced for over two millennia. Or you can ignore my offer, and be lonely for the rest of your days…" By this point Auris was leaving nothing to chance as she laid down the very bare details of what she wanted.

But by this point Mew had gotten enough information to say what he wanted to regarding Auris' temptations. Admittedly, how close Auris was to him did make the process of opening his mouth to speak what was on his mind rather troublesome, but Mew had to fight against whatever his mind was thinking regardless of how hard Auris was trying. Leaning forward a bit and lifting his arms up to grab Auris by the shoulders with a little force so he can get his point across, Mew said quietly to Auris "Listen Auris, I-"

"Mom, what the HELL are you up to now?!" A forceful, angry, feminine voice suddenly calls out to Auris from the entrance to the house, and as Auris turns her head to look at the person in question Mew lets out a tiny sigh of relief before he does the same. Standing at the door with a disbelieving expression is a girl about a couple inches shorter than Mew and Auris with light-brown hair, a loose green t-shirt tucked into her blue jeans, brown sneakers and white socks, and a ruby bracelet on her slender but slightly muscular right arm. Her hair was ruffled up quite a bit because of a red cloth headband wrapped around her forehead with a steel plate on the front that had an unfamiliar kanji etched into it.

With a hand leaning against the side of the doorway and her green eyes twitching to match her confusion at the situation, the girl is addressed by Auris looking at her with a tilt of her head and a grin on her face as she explains in a teasing tone "Oh hello Kairi my dear, rambunctious daughter. I'm just speaking with the boy who shall soon be your next daddy. Nothing unusual going on here, I swear~"

Kairi raises her other hand up with her mouth agape as though she was about to comment on her mother's behavior, but then she looks at Mew for a moment and changes what she was going to say to "…I'm pretty certain that guy is exactly the same age I am." She spoke quietly, as though she seriously couldn't bring herself to believe what she just said. "There's nothing wrong with loving young. I got married to the original Elemental Overlord when I was sixteen, after all." Auris replies with.

"You didn't have a daughter back then! Don't you think it's a little stupid of you to marry someone who is the same age as your daughter?" Kairi bluntly comments on in an exasperated tone while gesturing her left hand towards her body. "…I don't recall ever saying that I wanted to get married." Mew whispers out, and Kairi immediately looks at him with a furious expression before brandishing a finger forward and demanding of him "You be quiet…Ummm…Wait a second here…"

Kairi glares at Mew for a few seconds before turning to face her mom, who was now leaning against the arm of the chair with her head held back, and asked of her in exclaiming confusion "Who the HELL even is this guy?! Every Aurian my age goes to school, and I've NEVER seen this person there." Auris smiled and said "He's the new Elemental Overlord. His name is Mew, and I invited him up here to help me with my personal problem."

Kairi blinked for a few seconds before pulling her right hand from the doorway and shaking them both in front of her, saying in a stuttering tone "Ok, lets tackle everything I have a problem with in order. First, HE'S the new Elemental Overlord? Are you serious? He's just some slightly muscular but otherwise average looking guy." Mew just shrugs his shoulders and says nonchalantly "You shouldn't judge based off of appearances."

Folding her arms in front of her chest, Kairi then remarks with blunt sarcasm "Ok then smart-ass, lets judge you based on your name then. You're named Mew…Either your parents hated you when they decided to name you after the Pokemon or that ridiculous magical girl anime, or you just had no creativity whatsoever and decided that'd be such a GREAT name to give yourself." Kairi's remarks were scathing and concise as she said perfectly what was on her mind and had no hesitation whatsoever. Nevertheless, Kairi's smug smirk afterwards was met by Mew once more shrugging and saying with a brief stutter of surprise "I-I'm honestly surprised you knew about that stuff to make those references."

Mockingly, Kairi sneers and reflects Mew's previous words on him by saying "You shouldn't judge based off of appearances." Kairi then went back to given her mother an angry, wide-eyed glare and commenting "And finally, you can forget about your personal problem mom! You are NOT going to force a sixteen-year old boy to be your lover just because he's got the same powers as your long dead husband."

Auris then smiled and said to her daughter "Then why don't you just marry him? He's your age and all, he'd be a perfect match." Not knowing whether her mom was being serious or not, Kairi immediately blushes in embarrassment before she's left stuttering with her words afterwards "A-Are you insane?! You can't just set me up with some complete stranger, let alone get me to marry them, especially not when they are part of your sick desperation attempts!"

"Awwww, you shouldn't be that way. It could be the happiest experience of your life for all you know." Auris says with the utmost bliss in her voice before she closes her eyelids and smiles. Kairi reacts appropriately with a sarcastic "Oh yes, marrying the man with a Pokemon as his first name and no last name sounds like the greatest experience ever. Get real mom, I'm too young and I don't even care about marriage in the first place! It'd honestly make me so much happier if you stopped being so embarrassing and got some actual friends!"

Mew, watching Kairi getting increasingly flustered to the point that she slightly puffs her cheeks to pout, comments in a quiet but complimenting manner "You know, you're kind of cute when you get angry." Turning her head just enough to look at Mew, Kairi's face gets increasingly redder until she stamps her right foot against the ground with enough strength to shake the entire house and she proclaims "GET BENT!"

Mew was more impressed by the force she exerted than the anger she displayed, but as he was left blinking with a stoic expression on his face Kairi throws her arms into the air and turns towards the staircase before walking up it, letting out a single "GAH!" of frustration once she was on the second floor of the house. After a few seconds of silence, Auris turns her head to look back at Mew, who says to her while scratching the side of his head and forcing his chuckle "I imagine you guys have some interesting dinners…"

Leaning forward again, Auris says "Oh don't mind her, she's just at that stage of life where those hormones are going wild within her body. But this is just what happens when someone like me was part of the gene pool that created her…" Once she was halfway towards Mew she then lifted one hand to her lips and put on a sultry expression before saying "However, if she doesn't want you all to herself, then I will be more than happy to do so myself…"

Mew widens his eyes for a moment while Auris lays a hand on his right shoulder, remarking in a manner suggesting he was lost in thought at the time "Oh yeah, we're still in the middle of this." He then turns to look at Auris directly in the eyes and says to her "Ok Auris, don't you think it's time you dropped this little act of yours?" Unfazed by those words, Auris places her hand on Mew's other shoulder and says to him in an ignorant sounding tone "Why dear…I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about."

At that very moment Mew slanted his eyebrows and put on a rather serious expression, and he did a powerful brush of his right shoulder upward to force Auris' grip off of him while simultaneously reaching for the dark-green liquor bottle from earlier. Once it was in his possession he opens it up and holds it forward so Auris can get a good look inside of it. "Please smell the contents of this bottle. And don't lie to me, please." Mew was polite but still a bit demanding when he spoke, and Auris decided to place her nose close to the lip of the bottle and sniff it.

"…This isn't liquor, it's strawberry-lemonade." Auris comments on with confusion in her voice, and Mew nods his head and then lifts the bottle up carefully so as to not hit Auris in the face. After taking a drink of the lemonade Mew explains with his eyelids shut "If you were being honest about your desires, you would've laced the liquor or the lip of the bottle with some sort of toxin that would've left me at your mercy. But I was able to tell you hadn't done that by analyzing it for a bit, but since you wanted me to still drink the bottle I had to change the liquor into a more manageable liquid for consumption, so I chose something I had drank recently."

Mew looked at Auris, who was starring at him with a blank expression of surprise that made her come off across more as the person she was acting like before entering her home. Mew then said to her as he put the bottle back down on the table "I've been suspecting a lot of stuff about this whole affair since I met you at the temple, but I was willing to play your game since I suspected it was all just a test of my character…I think you've gone a little too far with it though Auris. Don't you think so as well?"

Auris this time blinks once and then glances away, pulling her body back and admitting in an apologetic tone "It seems I underestimated your intelligence, Mew." Auris then stood up from the couch and went back to her own as Mew looked at her and mentioned "I don't think you did, honestly. You KNEW it was going to end like this, Auris." Auris looked at Mew with surprised on her face while she sat herself down, and upon clasping her hands together she said "…So you figured that out as well, hmm?"

"That you are a clairvoyant? Yeah, you didn't exactly do a good enough job of hiding that particular detail. You know some stuff that wouldn't make sense for you to know unless you could see the future…Honestly, now that I know you are the Elemental Overlord's wife, this detail explains how the tablet was as accurate as it was on where I would live." Mew states while folding his arms behind his head, and Auris admits straight away while shutting her eyelids "Yes, I am a clairvoyant. The same thing that granted me eternal youth, agelessness and eternal beauty also granted me the ability to see the many futures of the universe at any given time…"

"What could have possibly managed to do all that?" Mew inquired in a moment of intense confusion, and Auris lifted her head up and looked Mew straight in the eyes before explaining to him concisely "When I was young, the original Dark King, myself, and one other person were part of an experiment meant to create deterrents against the seven elemental tribes…All three of us were injected with a formula called the 'Anti-Genesis Theorem'. This formula existed basically as an antibody for the elemental tribes, and it augmented our own powers to be able to greatly harm people from the tribes, even someone on the Elemental Overlord's level. They also had the side-effect of granting us different bodily enhancements at the cost of cursing us with one particular trait…Clairvoyance is my curse, naturally."

"…I can understand that, honestly. But wait, if that formula is toxic to those who use elements…" Mew began to ponder only for Auris to interrupt him and state "Yes, if I were to attack you with my aura, it would hurt you quite a bit. There was also another cost to having the formula in my body…No matter how much we wished it, it was impossible for me to carry my husband's child. That is why we had to rely on someone else to carry on his legacy."

Giving an honest response of "I'm sorry to hear that…" Mew then proceeded to lean forward a bit and say to Auris "Now that you're being honest with me, I think I will do the same. I do think you are an attractive person Auris, but that's only based on your outward appearance, not your inner self. So far, while you aren't someone I can fully distrust, you have been keeping quite a lot hidden from me, especially your intentions in bringing me here, and I can't exactly say I'm a fan of that type of person. So why don't we move away from the secrets and get on to the meat of the matter?"

Auris nodded her head without hesitation, saying to Mew "I get the feeling you suspected this ending from the very start. And I must apologize for that…Whenever I connect minds with another person, it briefly gives them the ability to see the future. I will say right now that I don't want to know what you saw, though." Mew had no qualms with that request, and he said while scratching the side of his head "Honestly though, it's not the first time I've dealt with something like that."

"Fair enough. No more need for stalling then, I'll tell you everything you need to know now." Auris then lays her hands atop her kneecaps and lets out a sigh, telling Mew to the best of her ability "Despite my claims earlier, I am currently the leader of the Aurians in name only. Not long after we moved Sancturia to Earth, a disciple of the Ten Sages and the only remnant of their legacy besides me, Aurian Gravitus, suddenly turned against his people and launched a coup against me. I was soundly defeated in battle, and he took over leadership of the city not long after."

"For two-thousand years, Gravitus has ruled my people with an iron fist, killing all who oppose him and making certain that none can ever be capable of foiling his grand ambitions. He is a very powerful warrior, one who has mastered all Aurian styles just like me, but with the brutality rivaling that of the greatest demons in the Dark King's army. With the tribes scattered after the war between the Dark King and my husband, and my husband's spirit sealed away…I had no one to turn to for help."

"But now you have inherited the Elemental Overlord's legacy, and I'm confident that you have the strength to defeat Gravitus…So please, will you listen to my plea and assist my people?" Auris folds her hands together into a pseudo-prayer, but as Mew grasped and rubbed his chin with one hand he said "So basically, you're wanting me to slay a monster. I have no problem with that, but all I have to ask is 'Why now?' After all, I've been the Elemental Overlord for a few years now."

"…I didn't feel confident that you'd be strong enough to defeat him when you were starting off." Auris says with a bit of hesitation, and Mew understandably raises an eyebrow and says to her "Even with clairvoyance, I can't imagine you knowing just how strong I am. No…There's more to this story than that Auris, and I get the feeling it has to do with that odd pyramid I walked by on the way to meet you at the temple."

"…Forgive me for again hiding information from you, but I thought I'd be able to avoid having to tell you this part…Remember when I said that the Aurian drives are divided into five tiers? Well at the very top of the Sage's Pyramid lies the only Class X Aurian Drive ever made, the Neo Drive. It's capable of amplifying the potential of a person's Aura to the level of it's creator, the Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage…But to make sure the power wouldn't be abused against them, the Ten Sages went against the Grand Sage's wishes and put a seal on it that would only allow them and their descendants to use it."

"Gravitus was a disciple of the Ten Sages, but he was also the guardian of the Neo Drive. However, he thought he was worthy of the Neo Drive, which I imagine was a heavy factor in him choosing to rebel. But since he cannot use the Neo Drive himself, he's utilized the only other solution available to him…As I am the only descendant of the Sages alive yet I myself am not capable of using the Neo Drive, Gravitus has ensured that I would continue to make children until one would come that would be capable of utilizing the Neo Drive…And lord knows what his plan for them would be after that…"

"And he's been at this for two-thousand years? Is he the third person to obtain the Anti-Genesis Theorem?" Mew inquired, and Auris shook her head before stating "No, he's not. I don't know how he managed to do so, but he has immortality…Or at the very least, the inability to age part of it. He is a very patient man, but he has to be considering that the age range that the Neo Drive seems to want for an owner is…" "16 years old." Mew interrupts Auris with the obvious answer.

Wasting no time now that Mew had figured her out, Auris hangs her head and closes her eyelids, putting on a somber expression before stating "…You want to know how many kids I've had since Gravitus took over? Over a hundred. None of them have ever lived to see past their sixteenth year, because Gravitus either doesn't see a use for them or they try to rebel and perish for their troubles." With a horrified expression, Mew says empathetically to her "T-That's horrible. That says something about your willpower though, Auris…"

"Does it really? Hmph, that's far from the truth…The reason I called you here is because I could no longer stand sitting by and watching as my children were slaughtered. Kairi is the next to go, and once Gravitus returns from his space travels in a few hours he is sure to come looking for her. And before I asked for your help, Kairi had a 90% chance of perishing in the encounter…But with you involved, the odds are 75% that she will perish. It's not that much better, but I have to take what I can get here." Auris explains while lifting her head up, where a couple tears seemed to be trickling down her cheeks.

"So you want me to meet Gravitus and confront him before he can get to your daughter?" Mew inquired, and Auris looked at him and said "I'm sorry for dragging you into this with a half-truth…But the fact of the matter is that I do not want to lose another of my children to that monster." With the phrase spoken in his prophetic dreams entering his eardrums, Mew extended a right hand out and said "Then I'll be more than happy to help. If what you say about the Neo Drive is true, then Gravitus acquiring it cannot be good for the rest of the universe. The safety of your daughter and your people are in trustworthy hands."

Auris gave Mew a genuine smile of appreciation as the two did a handshake, but unbeknownst to them Kairi had been leaning against the wall at the very top of the staircase the whole time and overheard the conversation in it's entirety. Once she heard Mew accept the offer so easily, Kairi looked both horrified and insulted, an expression that quickly changed to anger as she clenched her right fist and grit her teeth, stating in disbelief "Unbelievable…Mom is seriously trusting this newbie over me?"

Angered by her mom's decision, Kairi quickly peeled herself from the wall and walked to her room at the far end of the hallway. Opening the door quietly to not grab her mom's attention, Kairi walks inside and immediately throws herself onto her circular bed, lying across it chest first as the sheets are thrown up on the sides by the jittering of her mattress. Planting her face against the east edge of her bed while stretching her arms and legs off the sides, Kairi comments in a deflated but muffled tone "I seriously can't believe this is happening…This has to be one of the crappiest days ever."

After a few seconds of loathsome sighing, Kairi flips her body around so she was now lying on her back and looking towards the ceiling, which is painted to look like the outskirts of space, complete with the light acting as the rock of a comet. With her back arced a bit, her breasts puff forward slightly, though she is quick to lay her left arm atop them to hold them back. With her other hand, Kairi reaches for her headband and unties it from the back so she can pull it off, looking melancholy as she lifts it up in front of her face.

While kicking her feet to a particular rhythm against the bed, Kairi looks at the headband and said "…Two years, huh? I made a promise not long after you left to stop Gravitus myself so our family can finally have some peace, but now it seems mom's just going to send some supposed reincarnation of the Elemental Overlord or whatever to do the job himself. I-I honestly feel insulted, by my mother no less…"

Looking at the headband for a few more seconds, Kairi pays attention to the kanji in particular and murmurs "…'Hope'…That's what you etched onto this steel plate before you gave the headband to me…Should I have hope that this guy stops Gravitus for us? Or should I hope he fails so I can have a chance to take on that monster myself?" Pondering this for a bit, Kairi then firms her expression into a glare and grips the headband tightly, saying to herself with plenty of energy "No, you're right, I shouldn't let him help us out!"

Kicking herself upright so she's now sitting on the other end of her bed, Kairi states with the utmost confidence "Yeah! I'll go kick that loser's butt and prove to mom that I'm strong enough to handle Gravitus. Thanks for the pep talk!" Kairi then wraps the headband around her forehead again before getting off of her bed and running to the window, where she looks down and finds that Mew has already left the house and begun to make his way to the pyramid, though the boy turns around and happens to notice Kairi looking at him from above, to which he responds to that by waving his hand up and putting on a nice smile.

Kairi is greatly irritated by this, and she quickly slams both her hands against the top of her desk while proclaiming "That jerk! He's taunting me with that gesture! I bet he thinks he's superior to us Aurians! Well screw you, I'm going to prove you wrong!" Turning around, Kairi makes a dash for her door and grabs hold of a crimson Bo-Staff that was as tall as she was, complete with two emerald dragons coiled around it's length and a gold sphere attached to both ends. She then runs out the door, ready to go pursue Mew…

Meanwhile, Mew was casually strolling to the pyramid, making certain not to run into any of the Aurians along the way despite being deep in thought about the things Auris had told him. With his arms in a fold and his head hung a bit, Mew said to himself "I've gotten myself involved in something pretty interesting…Can't say I'll be bored for a while after I'm done with this matter." Lifting his head up and smiling, Mew comments "Hehe, that was a pretty asshole thing to say. This isn't about curing boredom, it's about liberating these people from a tyrant…"

It didn't take long after that for Mew to reach the bottom of the pyramid again, though now he was positioned close to the tunnel-like square entrance with his head lifted up to look at how tall it was. "Ten floors…And Auris said there will be some foes inside to get in my way. But before I can go inside…" Pulling his arms apart as he both smiles and chuckles internally, Mew recalls one thing Auris told him _"I think it's only a fair warning, young Mew…Before you can go into the Sage's Pyramid, there's one person you have to fight…" _

Before he turns around, Mew says nonchalantly "Hello again Kairi…You know, you could've waited until after Gravitus has been defeated to see me again." Once he does so, he recalls the rest of what Auris said as he looks at Kairi standing a few feet away from him with her Bo-Staff held in both hands and her body positioned sideways _"Please don't harm her too much…" _With that request echoing in his mind, Mew holds his arms out with a smile and says "But then again, I get the feeling Gravitus is the reason you're here to fight me, right?" Kairi responded with a serious growl and a firm slanting of her eyebrows to glare at Mew…

_Next Time: The Power of Aura_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Lessons Begin**

Standing before the Sages' Pyramid, Mew is currently being confronted by Auris' daughter Kairi, who is doing nothing but staring at him angrily while grasping onto her bo-staff in both hands. Mew raises his eyebrows and smiles with an inner chuckle, and with his arms still extended outward he asks "So umm…Are you going to do anything or are you just going to stand there looking at me?" Kairi scowls and says to him firmly "Get out of my way."

"I don't think that's really an option here. I told your mom that I was going to stop Gravitus, so I'd kind of look like an ass if I broke my promise." Mew comments nonchalantly afterwards, and with a fervent widening of her eyes Kairi proclaims "You look like an asshole anyways for doing this! You aren't an Aurian, so you have no reason to get involved in our affairs." Mew gives her a rather disbelieving glance and tells her while tilting his head slightly and shrugging his shoulders "In any other circumstance, you'd probably be right."

"But your mother asked me to help out, and I'm pretty certain she's the go-to authority on Aurian affairs." Mew remarks, and Kairi says harshly "Mom's crazy. Only an Aurian can defeat Gravitus. A newbie Elemental Overlord like you doesn't stand a chance." "That's a mighty fine number of assumptions you're throwing out there, and it's especially insulting that one of those is directed at your own mother." Mew says to her right afterwards.

Turning her body forward and placing the bottom of her staff against the ground, Kairi brandishes her right pointer finger at Mew and remarks in a crass manner "I can say what I want to about my mother, so butt out. Secondly, they aren't assumptions, it's a matter of fact that you are weak and only an Aurian can stop Gravitus." "If that was the case then your mother wouldn't have brought me in to deal with him. This isn't a 'Only Link can stop Ganon' scenario I'm dealing with here." Mew replied with a timely reference included in his nonchalantly spoken sentence.

"You don't even HAVE a reason to fight Gravitus." Kairi claims bluntly, but while folding his arms together and putting on a serious expression Mew tells her "He's a monster that's oppressing his people…Do I really need to have a reason to stop him besides the fact that what he's doing is morally wrong?" Raising her staff up and then stamping it down once, Kairi proclaims "Yes you do! Do you even understand that a lot of us Aurians might have personal vendettas against Gravitus?!"

"And yet you are the only one vocally objecting to me going inside the pyramid and doing the task your mother wants me to handle. So I'm assuming either you got some guts compared to everyone else or your reason for fighting is a lot stronger than the rest of your people. So which is it?" Mew inquired calmly, but Kairi glared at him with slanted eyebrows and said bitterly "I don't have to explain myself to an outsider."

Sighing in response to that, Mew then shook his head while laying a couple fingers against his forehead. "Then I really have no reason to relent. I REALLY am having a hard time understanding why you're having a problem here anyways…After all, who cares WHO stops the oppressor? There's no prophecy involved, Gravitus can be stopped by anyone. Honestly, and I apologize a bit since I don't usually say this…But you're acting like a bitch about this whole thing, Kairi."

Immediately upon being insulted like that, Kairi's eyes widen for just a moment, and she goes completely frenzied in her expression before gripping her staff tightly in both hands again and putting herself in her prior stance. "I will NOT be talked down to by some outsider! Draw your weapon and fight me right here, right now!" Kairi then proclaims angrily, and Mew says "I had the feeling we were going to reach this conclusion anyways. It's a shame really…If only your attitude was as appealing as your appearance. But I'm not going to tolerate this type of behavior, especially when there's more pressing manners at hand."

"W-What?!" Kairi sounded incredibly flustered by the brief remark Mew made about her appearance, and then she remarks in anger towards him "You're going to regret saying something like that cretin! I'll defeat you and then take down Gravitus!" Mew then holds his right hand out and begins to summon forth a cylindrical tornado of red flames out while stating with an intrigued smile "If you somehow manage to defeat me, then you might just be able to take on Gravitus. But for now…"

Summoning forth his sword from the flames, Mew quickly grasps onto the cross of amber that acted as the handle of his sword. A ring made of diamond wrapped around the amber cross, and there were eight triggers of different colors atop the ring. The blade was five inches wide, half as tall as Mew himself, and an inch thick, and the blade was made of a silver-like steel that was quickly enveloped in bright flames. With his sword brandished out Mew finishes his sentence off happily with "Lets begin Elemental Overlord 101 with your lovely teacher Mew."

"Heh, the only one who is going to get schooled is you. I'll show you why we Aurians are not someone you can mess with, cretin!" Kairi says before leaping forward and spinning her body around as she descends towards Mew, taking her staff and swinging the top half of it straight at him. Mew lifts his sword above him while barely changing his expression, letting the staff strike down on his blade and break some of the flames away from it due to the impact's shockwave. But Kairi then vaults behind Mew and lands in a kneeled position, letting go of the staff in her left hand.

She then swerves her body around on the slick glass floor and tries to go for Mew's leg with her staff extended out, but Mew subtly moves his right foot back and causes a high, uneven wall of glass to come up and block the staff attack from the side. As Kairi quickly lifts herself up and looks surprised, Mew explains to her while calmly lowering his right arm "Lesson one, I naturally control many elements, giving me a variety of options for offense and defense."

Mew then demonstrates the offensive capabilities of his powers by nudging his left shoulder back against the wall and causing a series of glass shards to fly out from the breaking apart wall. Kairi responds with a bit of shock but then holds her staff in front of her and spins it around rapidly with an agile switching of which hand grips onto the center of it, causing her to defend against all of the glass shards and then put herself in a perfect position to grab the staff in her right hand and thrust it forward, but as she does a stream of light-blue aura comes down from her arm and wraps itself around the staff.

With this added layer, Kairi's staff is able to puncture right through the glass wall like it's paper and strike Mew in the back while the shattering noise had just hit his ears. "Ooof!" Mew remarks rather casually as the force of the blow knocks him onto the ground. Kairi pulls her staff out of the glass and quickly performs a high forward flip into the air, preparing to bring her staff straight down and expanding the bottom of the aura layer so it looks like a thick, rounded hammerhead.

Mew turns his head to the right and looks up to see Kairi coming down on him quickly, but before he deals with that problem he lays a hand against the ground and forces a tiny seed into the floor that cracks apart the glass much like a pebble against a car window would. Mew then uses the power of the wind to create a gale behind his feet that launches him forward in a single burst of speed, though that comes at the cost of having his skin skid against the ground.

Kairi slams her staff against the ground and puts large cracks in the glass as her hammer aura extension impacts with it. The amount of force she puts down forces her to kneel, but she doesn't worry about that and instead glares at Mew while he uses the wind to gently raise himself back onto his feet. Mew then turns around and brushes the front of his body while forcibly huffing and puffing a bit from the burning sensation on his skin, and he follows this up by regaining his calm demeanor and lifting his left hand forward before remarking "Lesson two, Elemental Overlords can be some pretty tricky fellows."

He then snaps his fingers together and utilizes the seed he planted moments ago, accelerating it's growth to the point that it cracks open and raises some creeping ivy that rapidly wraps itself around Kairi's legs and goes for her waist by the time she flinches and notices what's going on. The ivy tightly wraps itself around her body to keep her in place, with some of it splitting off to make sure there is multiple ivy wrapped around her arms to keep them held up before she can attack the lower ivy with her staff.

By the time Mew was done, Kairi's body had been wrapped from neck-to-toe with ivy, and she was looking at him with the utmost frustrating in her eyes. "I wouldn't consider struggling, the ivy MIGHT release a poison if you do." Mew advises calmly while laying a hand against his chin. With a smirk, Kairi says "Wasn't planning on it ya creep." She then uses her mind to move the aura from her staff back to her body, and suddenly rips apart all of the ivy by summoning hundreds of aura needles out from her body.

With an awed whistle beforehand, Mew says "Wow, that's a pretty cool tactic." Swinging her staff beside her in one hand, Kairi keeps her smirk while brushing the front of her nose and stating "I've trained diligently in the offensive style. I'm perfectly capable of overpowering anything you throw my way." "Offensive style, eh? Well you know, the key to victory is one part offense and one part defense. I hope you've been taught at least a bit in the latter." Mew ponders.

"Like I need to be advised by the person I'm going to defeat." Kairi says with quiet arrogance while holding her staff back a bit and using her aura to put a pike-like spike at the front of her weapon. She then dashes forward and rapidly thrusts her staff once she stops six feet away from Mew, trying to use the sharpness of her aura to scar his body. But Mew reacts by standing in place and moving his right arm around so his blade is positioned perfectly to absorb the impact of each blow sent his way.

All the while, Mew smiled and casually asked "So umm…You're interested in video games right? I mean you mentioned Pokemon earlier. What's your favorite Gen?" Kairi looked at him in disbelief while continuing to attack, saying angrily "Are you trying to strike up a conversation during a battle?!" "Well if I have to be honest I consider this more-or-less a training exercise on what Aurians are capable of." Mew remarks with a shrug of his shoulders that doesn't disrupt his defense.

This throws Kairi into a frenzy again, and she reels back on her staff and doubles the size of her pike extension before thrusting it forward and exclaiming "I AM NOT SOME TRAINING DUMMY!" A spiral of aura erupts out as she thrusts the staff through the air, and she hits Mew's blade right in the center with enough force to push it back against his chest and knock him through the air a few feet until he lands on the ground, looking a bit surprised by the strength Kairi exerted.

Kairi has to catch her breath for a moment afterwards, panting as her face was flushed red out of anger for what Mew said to her, but while she was pulling back on her staff Mew took advantage of her weakness to charge forward and pull back his left fist, throwing out a straightforward punch right into Kairi's face that launches her backwards, making her spin around in the air until she slams against the wall of the pyramid back first, hitting it hard enough to make a body shaped indent that spreads cracks out across the crystal stone.

Mew pulls his hand back and shakes it around a bit while unfurling the fist, stating to Kairi calmly afterwards "Lesson Three…Try not to let your opponents get to you. It's an easy way to get others to take advantage of your weak points." Kairi doesn't waste time in peeling herself off the wall, but she holds her hand up close to her now bleeding nose and proclaims in disbelief "Y-You punched me! Didn't your mom teach you not to punch a girl?!"

Mew folded his arms together and remarks in a rather insulted manner "Oh you are NOT pulling the gender card on me. I'm sorry, but you seem to have gotten the wrong idea about my personality. I'll be chivalrous to women outside of battle, but if you have the strength to fight me I'm going to treat you like a warrior regardless of appearance or gender." All of a sudden, Mew hears someone behind him exclaim "Yeah! You tell that crazy bitch off!"

Mew looks behind himself for a moment and finds himself suddenly surprised by the fact that a crowd of Aurians have gathered in the area, stretching from one corner of the pyramid to the other in an arc. "Ummm…Seems an audience has gathered. Can't say I saw this coming…" Mew murmurs out as he turns back to look at Kairi, who was currently looking angrily at all of the Aurians that had gathered, especially with what the random dude said regarding her. Quickly, Kairi raises her right arm up beside her face and scowls.

Mew remarks to her quickly "Hey, calm down. Don't let the audience's presence affect your battle per-" "Screw you! I've had enough of your mockery! Time to show you why I'm the only one who can face Gravitus with this Level 3 Drive of mine! Beast Tamer Drive, activate!" Kairi interrupts Mew midway and slams two of her fingers on the chimera-etched stone attached to her bracelet. The light-blue aura her body slowly begins to transform into a dark-green one, and she picks her staff up and lashes it against the ground to split it apart into multiple segments, all of them connected together by a thick coil of aura down the center.

"…Huh, your power's increased a lot." Mew said with a bit of intrigue and surprise in his voice while Kairi places her newly formed whip back together and lays it atop her other hand, saying to him in an arrogant tone "Now I'm going to win. I'll take you down in less than five minutes." Mew points his sword at her and states "I hope you actually know how time flows, otherwise you're pulling a Frieza on me with that claim."

"…I'm going to beat you so badly that you won't be able to crack a joke or make a reference ever again." Kairi says dryly while she looks down at her whip, and Mew nonchalantly shrugs and says "If you shut my mouth somehow, I'll just write in the air with water." Kairi thus raises her eyes up in quiet annoyance and says "Take him down my beast…"

She then summons out from her aura a manifestation of a tiger, which looked perfectly like one down to the ruffles of fur despite being colored pure dark-green. It maintained a solid form and let out it's mighty roar before it runs across the ground at a surprising speed towards Mew. _"It's pretty fast…" _Mew thinks before he goes to swing his sword down across the ground to intercept the aura tiger, but as he goes for the upward slash the beast moves with surprising agility to the left and leaps towards the side of Mew's body.

The tiger swings its front claws out multiple times at Mew's arm, but because they are not real they fail to scratch into his skin and instead attacks with the force of ten-ton hammers. Mew can feel quite a bit of pain in his arm muscles and quickly finds himself having to retaliate by turning his body to the left and using the position of his arms after the last attack to swing his sword diagonally downward towards the aura tiger.

The beast leaps back and avoids the attack, but Mew slams the blade against the ground and summons forth an eruption of stone that strikes the aura tiger in the chin and knocks it into the air while it lets out a realistic, pained screech. Knowing quickly that attacking the beast was a waste of time, Mew lifted his sword out of the ground to break apart and send the stones at the mid-air tiger to distract it before turning his attention towards Kairi. "Come on mysterious stranger guy, you can take her!" Another random Aurian cheers, to which Mew responds to that by subtly gesturing his left hand out and summoning a tiny wall of wind to slap said guy across the face for his vocal interference.

He then runs at Kairi quickly to make up for those few seconds of lost time, and while holding his sword beside himself he takes his left hand and curls it into a fist to go for an attack at Kairi's chest while she was giving him a snide expression. Before the fist of fire connects, Kairi takes her whip and lashes it out to wrap it around Mew's arm and stop him from even getting close to touching her. The grip around his arm was surprisingly tight, and Mew couldn't get loose even though he pulled back with all of his strength.

With a whistle, Kairi calls the aura tiger towards her general direction. The beast lands on one of the pile of rock chunks from Mew's earlier attack and leaps across the battlefield until it was right behind Mew, at which point it rears up and takes both of it's claws down onto Mew's back. Mew visibly grimaces in wide-eyed pain as the force of the aura tiger's attack goes through his muscles and spine.

But before the aura tiger could be commanded to do another attack, Mew pulls back a bit on the whip to stretch it out enough so that the rope in the center is more vulnerable. He then hangs his sword's ring on his wrist to free up his fingers for a quick snap, which causes a thunderbolt to come down and zap right through the rope of aura, breaking it apart from the rest of the whip and allowing Mew enough time to pull his arm out of the front of the whip and turn himself around while grasping onto his sword again.

Once he was looking directly at the tiger he performs a hard swing of his sword horizontally across the tiger's chest, unleashing a burst of wind to blow the tiger away from him at the same time. The aura tiger falls against the ground a fair distance away, and Mew is able to turn around and resume focus on Kairi. But by the time he does so she had already put her whip back together and lifted it up ready to lash it out at him. The aura had been spread out to thicken the whip and give it more strength, meaning that when Mew raised his sword up to block the attack there he was immediately forced to kneel with one leg onto the ground, an act that cracked some of the bones in his other leg.

While Mew was down like that Kairi kept whipping at him to try and break his blade, with every lash spreading aura out in waves. Mew remarks nonchalantly "You know, my blade is kind of unbreakable. I should know, I've tested it's limits pretty thoroughly." "But it's never faced the power of an Aurian before, has it?" Kairi comments on arrogantly, to which Mew tilts his head and admits "Well no, but I don't exactly think you're applying nearly enough strength to crack it let alone break it."

Kairi's slants her eyebrows at that comment and then says "Fine, I guess I'll have to show you a couple other tricks my Beast Tamer drive is capable of then." She proceeds to use one strong lash from her whip to vault herself over Mew's body and land about twenty feet away where her aura tiger currently lied down with it's form distorted by the sword slash. She snaps her fingers to get rid of the beast and then snaps them again to convert the aura into another beast, this time making it into a ferocious female lion.

"Not only can I make multiple beasts…" Kairi says before she lifts her whip and lashes the tip of the front into the aura lioness, which causes aura to visibly stream into the beast from her body, and slowly the creature grows in size until it was taller than Kairi herself. "But I can increase their strength through my whip. Now my beast, tear that cretin apart!" With a swing of her free hand out towards Mew, Kairi's aura lioness roars so loudly that it shakes the area and then sprints forth at Mew.

Mew watches for a second as the beast tears apart the ground as it runs, and he waits until the last moment before the creature was before him with claw halfway swung towards his body to leap back and land against the side of the pyramid while the lioness punctures through the floor like it was nothing. Mew then dispels his sword temporarily and holds his arms out to summon fireballs at his fingertips, the crimson glimmer from each one shone brightly before Mew thrust his arms forward and proclaimed "FLAME CANNON!"

He then launches a tunnel of raw flames from his hands that goes straight down towards the aura beast, consuming it entirely and causing a large pillar of fire to erupt into the air. But the aura beast wasn't affected very much as it leaped from the pillar bathed in fire and ran up the side of the pyramid after Mew, who was recovering from firing off his attack. The lioness lunges it's head into Mew's gut and causes him to become heavily winded as aura erupts in a shockwave from the sides and back of his body to represent the damage he has now sustained.

But instead of letting the beast have it's way with him past that point, Mew recovers from the blow and swings his arms out to grip the lioness on both sides of it's gargantuan body, bracing his feet against the ground for a few seconds with the help of his powers creating braces of steel that did not bend an inch around his legs. Once he had grasped the creature tightly enough, Mew uses the steel binds to push himself higher into the air on a pillar of his own creation, and without a stable platform to put it's back feet on the aura beast is left hanging vertically in mid-air rather quickly while Mew continues to hold onto it's front shoulders.

Once high enough up, Mew flattens the platform until a solid discus and removes the binds, letting go of the beast so it can begin plummeting to the ground, hoping that the hold of gravity combined with the speed of it's fall would be enough to significantly damage it if not defeat it entirely. But the beast was persistent in it's pursuit of Mew's defeat as it took both of it's claws and latched them to the back of Mew's arms, and though they could not tear through flesh the tips still dug into his skin deep enough to draw some blood out while Mew himself grimaced in surprise.

"Heh, you're a clingy beast…Sorry though, I think I'd be more of a dog person if I ever decided to have a pet." Mew comments through the pain with his usual joking tone, and he proceeds to control his own blood by solidifying what was leaking out and providing enough of a push to get the aura beast off of his arms. The beast then falls to the ground with a mighty thud that spreads dust across the area, and Mew follows up by leaping into the air and flipping himself around so he could pull his fist back and then slam it against his steel platform.

The platform then morphs into a giant spear of steel that thrusts down and impales the aura lioness through the chest, going so far as to also puncture through the ground as well. Mew then flips through the air until he lands on his feet a fair distance away from the trapped aura beast. It wasn't defeated, but there's no way it'd be able to move. Mew drew his sword back out with a flick of his wrist and prepared to strike the beast down, but Kairi took care of the matter for him by dispersing the creature's form and bringing the aura in front of her. "We're down to the last minute and a half, but I don't think I'll need all of that time now." Kairi says with the utmost confidence as she turns the aura into one final beast.

The aura forms into the shape of a mighty grizzly bear, and said beast quickly stands on it's hind legs and lets out a gruesome roar while Kairi throws her whip into the creature's back. She pours enough aura into the bear to triple it's size, and because of that it's roar soon becomes both echoing and near deafening. Mew's heart beats heavily for a bit as he remarks in his head _"Great, the lioness hurt me quite a bit…I probably should switch to another form when I get the chance."_

But he was immediately pressured as the bear walked over to him and lashed it's claws down, forcing Mew to leap back to avoid the onslaught and land atop the door to the pyramid, where he keeps hold of his sword while simultaneously thrusting his fists into the air to send short-term streams of flame right into the bear's face. The creature does not flinch and ferociously retaliates by taking it's right claws straight down and striking Mew clean through his body with enough force to break the door apart and bury Mew in the rubble created from it.

After a brief pause, the bear lifts it's claw out from the rubble while pinching Mew's shirt in the back to raise him out. Mew was a bit battered from the attack with visible dust on his clothes and some blood dripping down his arms from the shoulders. Kairi grins and pats her whip against her left hand, saying as the seemingly defeated Mew was hung up for all to see "I knew you weren't anything special, Elemental Overlord! You can't handle what we Aurians are capable of!"

However, Mew begins chuckling in response to that claim, and while lifting his sword up he holds it so the triggers on his handle we pointed towards Kairi. Kairi states "What are you laughing about now? Got another terrible joke on your mind?" Instead of answering that directly, Mew lifts his other hand up and starts moving it to the white colored trigger on his sword, telling Kairi firmly "Final Lesson…These triggers on my sword aren't just a design flourish." He then clicks the white trigger with little effort.

From the blade erupts multiple streams of holy light that envelop themselves around Mew's body like a cocoon and force the aura bear's grip to come off it. Kairi looks up in surprise and says "W-What?!" As the cocoon quickly breaks apart with the spreading of angelic wings from within, Mew jumps forward while having his hand latched onto the handle of his diamond katana in the hilt, as his body wore the holy armor and angelic wings expected of this form. With a single draw of his blade from his hilt he slices right through the aura bear's stomach, cleaving it in two and causing it to let out a dying roar before it's split visage is dissimilated into nothingness, blanketed by a veil of light that launches streams of it throughout the sky.

Mew quickly lands on the ground and sheathes his katana, holding his right hand out while streams of light cascade towards the palm and saying to the rather stunned Kairi "If you have anymore beasts, now's your chance to send one at me, otherwise you're taking this attack head-on." The fact that Kairi could only look at him with widened eyes and a bit of a shiver of her body was enough to tell Mew that she not only could not summon another beast, but that the bear was likely the strongest one she had. With a bit of a pitying glance, Mew sighs and says "Then I guess I win the battle…"

Without further hesitation Mew fires off a holy fireball from his palm that strikes Kairi dead-on in about two seconds, with the attack bursting apart into a spread of white flames as Kairi is knocked onto her backside while letting out a brief cry of pain, her body landing with a jolt while her aura changes back to light-blue and her whip snaps back into the staff form. Folding his arms together, Mew says calmly "Sorry it had to end like that, but you REALLY shouldn't have tried picking a fight with the guy who's trying to help you and your people out."

Returning to his normal form, Mew begins to turn around while stating "I hope this served as a good lesson for your future endeavors, now go back to your mom and wait for me to finish Gravitus off, Kairi." He spreads his arms out to move aside the rubble at the door and was about ready to go inside the pyramid when all of a sudden he heard the clang of Kairi placing her staff against the ground, which causes him to pause and glance over his shoulder to see Kairi kneeling on the ground and grasping her staff with both hands to act as her support. Quivering with a somewhat distressed look in her eyes, Kairi murmurs out "W-W-Why you…? W-Why…?"

"Shut up you bitch!" "You finally got your just desserts!" "Go home and cry to your mother again!" "Stupid girl!" "Take this 'cretin'!" "Just stay kneeling on the ground like that!" The Aurians that were watching the battle suddenly start erupting into various hateful comments towards Kairi, with some of them even tossing stones and other junk at her, each blow causing her expression to visibly flinch in agony as she looked almost traumatized by all that was happening. She didn't say anything else at this point, and with her biting down on her lower lip she continued to quiver.

Mew felt outright disgusted by what he was seeing even after Kairi brought the battle upon herself with her behavior, and as he turned around to look at Kairi he thought to himself _"What the hell? This is almost like a lynch mob…" _It seems there was something problematic going on between Kairi and the rest of the Aurians that justified this almost barbaric behavior, and it didn't take long for Mew to summon his sword and hold it along the length of his right arm while keeping a finger close to the white trigger and exclaiming "Hey! All of you cut this out right now!"

Only one of the Aurians, a male teenager, stops to look at Mew and said "No offense dude, but she's had this coming for a long time. But if you want to stop us, you're going to have to take all of us down!" Mew glances over the crowd that had gathered here, noticing not just adults and teenagers but children as well. Giving the Aurian who spoke to him a powerful glare that exudes of his own energy to make them go stiff in the knees, Mew clicks on the white trigger and goes back into his Light Form.

"I'm really ashamed you chose to say that. And I'm especially ashamed of you adults for teaching your children to have this type of behavior towards someone YOU dislike." Mew calmly says, and in a rather ballsy display considering what they just saw Mew being capable of the Aurians glared at him and almost looked ready to attack him as well. Mew just raised an eyebrow to that response and lifted his right hand up, but instead of scaring them with an attack he instead used his energy to swiftly erect a half-dome barrier of light over himself and Kairi, attaching the back of it to the pyramid so there'd be no way for anyone to get in.

The sound from the outside was also cut off, and with that all dealt with Mew returns to his regular form and dispels his sword while remarking to himself "I got ten minutes…" Letting out a puff of air before he turns to look at the quivering Kairi, Mew then plants his fists against the sides of his stomach and remarks "…You're too soft sometimes Mew, but you can't just leave this alone." He then steps forward until he was directly in front of Kairi, where he then kneels down in front of her and says with an empathetic gesture outward "Hey, you don't have to worry about those guys anymore. Are you ok?"

Kairi lifts her head up just enough to look Mew straight in the eyes and scowl, saying to him in a rather weak sounding voice "W-W-Why you…? W-W-Why did my mom pick you over me to fight Gravitus?" Mew couldn't exactly provide an answer to that question, so he just let Kairi continue talking while she turned her head away and mentioned "Do you know how insulting it is…To have your own mother put more faith into some stranger than her own daughter who has worked tirelessly to defeat the man oppressing her people…"

Kairi then looked back at Mew and said bluntly "Why the HELL are you still here? …You humiliated me, isn't that good enough for you?" Mew shook his head and said "I wasn't intending to humiliate you, far from it…Honestly, how could I have known that your own people were so against you?" "…Hmph, it's been like this for me for two years now. Just me versus whatever shit they choose to dish out at me. A lot of them are just upset that I've kicked their ass in battle before…" Kairi mentions with rather little care in her voice, though Mew knew well enough that it did affect her quite a bit.

With a chuckle, Mew says "Well that's not too hard to believe. You forced me to use my Light Form to beat you. That's not exactly an easy feat. You're pretty strong Kairi, though you seem to be more focused on brute strength instead of trying to use any real strategy." Kairi lowers her eyebrows in a glare and says to him "…Geez, I really don't get you. You take this request from my mom, then you defeat me in battle, then you stand up for me, THEN you lecture me on proper battling…"

"What can I say? I'm a bit of an oddball sometimes." Mew admits in a moment of nonchalant deprecation towards himself, but Kairi then pouts a bit and says to him "Well whatever, thanks for the compliment I guess…But you won our battle, so what's the point of my strength if you're already good enough to defeat Gravitus…" Sitting down in a criss-cross position, Mew raises a pointer finger up and says with a smile "Hey now, don't get down in the dumps. I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Two heads are better than one, as the saying goes."

Looking at Mew in confusion, Kairi says "What are you implying?" Mew gestures back with his thumb and states "Look, I know how it always goes with these type of adventures. Gravitus probably has a squad of super powered minions waiting for us inside the pyramid to stall us until he arrives. For all I know a lot of them could have abilities that could give me a tough time, so wouldn't it be great if someone was there to have my back?"

"…You're seriously asking me to come along with you, aren't you?" Kairi inquired with a rather dumbfounded expression on her face. Mew folded his arms together and said "Something like that, yeah. But if you come with you you'll have to follow a few rules." Pulling a fist from his armfold, Mew lifts a finger up every time he lists a rule off "One, I want you to pay attention to how I fight and learn some things to be used in the future. Two, I'd like it if you'd try to lighten up a little bit…Not everything has to be serious. Three, give me a smile every now and then, you look like such a grumpy gus otherwise."

"…This is seriously happening." Kairi states in disbelief while looking down with an expression of confusion. Mew shrugs and says "Hey, you can either take me up on my offer or in five minutes you can go back to being ostracized by your own people." "You're not exactly giving me much of a choice here. It's either deal with those assholes or spend what I assume will be some riveting time with you." Kairi responds with after raising her head up and putting on a dry expression.

"Hey, if you listen to my advice and do a good job fighting along the way, I'll let you fight Gravitus yourself. Sounds like a pretty good bargain, wouldn't you agree?" Mew offers, and after a few seconds of pondering things over Kairi lets out a single hmm and then whispers "Well, I guess you did be a bit nice to me…Fine, I'll come along, but I'm going to lay my own ground rules first." Mew shrugs and says without a care "Toss away."

Pulling a hand away from her staff, Kairi does the same thing Mew was doing moments ago while she lists off her rules "First off, no saying anything about my breasts. I know they are big, almost as big as my mom's in fact, but if you are more focused on that then I won't be able to take you seriously. This leads to my second rule…If you crack even one terrible joke, I'm slapping you across the face." Mew stops her then and there by scoffing once and saying "Ooooooo, going to have to add a fourth rule to my list. No Tsundere behavior allowed. That means no 'b-b-baka's', slaps, or 'I didn't do it because I like you or anything'."

"…Well you won't have to worry about that last one anyways. But fine, if you get to add a fourth rule then I'm doing the same. Third one goes first though, and that rule is that I'll be allowed to throw out sarcastic remarks if something comes to mind. The fourth and final rule is that I want you to treat us as equals." When Kairi finishes off her list of demands, Mew just nods his head once and nonchalantly states "Ok, I guess those are fair requests."

He then extends his right hand out and both him and Kairi do a quick handshake on the whole matter, with Kairi putting on a more battle-hardened expression while Mew helps her get back onto her feet. Once that was done and over with, Mew said to her while gesturing his arm out "Anyways, the barrier's going down in about a minute. We should probably get going." "Yeah, that gathering of losers won't follow us into the temple anyways." Kairi says bluntly with a smirk.

Mew blinks a few times regarding that comment and then turns around to start heading into the temple, and while Kairi followed him she widened her eyes momentarily and remarked "Hey! You have something to say about that, don't you?! Hey!" By the time the two have entered the pyramid, the barrier of light Mew erected goes down, and all the Aurians are suddenly slapped across the face simultaneously by some tiny hands of light that Mew had left in the barrier. As the entire group just stood there dumbfounded at what just happened, one guy suddenly proclaimed "Wow! That guy is just as much of an asshole as she is!"

_Next Time: The Guards of Gravitus_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Melee Against Mercury**

All the way back at Auris' house, we find the lady still sitting on her couch with the liquor and beer bottles still on the table and a pack of cigars now at the edge of it. One cigar was in between two of Auris' fingers, and after lighting it up she takes a puff of it and lets out a tired sigh before lowering the cigar and saying to herself "…Once more I didn't tell Mew the whole truth about the situation at hand. Hmmm, the odds are more in our favor now that my daughter will survive Gravitus…But in the end Gravitus still holds the advantage."

"I have to have more faith in Mew to make everything work out…But I don't think even he can still Gravitus' tongue when it comes to the secrets he has inside of him. My daughter, I'm so, so sorry that things might end up this way…" Auris then takes another smoke and tries to hope for the best towards the future as all she can do it sit in her house and know nothing about what was currently going on inside the Sages' Pyramid.

Meanwhile, in said pyramid, Mew and Kairi had entered the first floor. To Mew's surprise specifically, the décor of the pyramid's innards were not at all the same as what he saw from the outside. One half of the outstretched floor consisted of solid lava rock which the other half had black ice on it. On the left wall slowly flowed a waterfall of pure magma, while on the other wall a waterfall of slushy ice went down.

At the opposite end of the room there was a swirling violet-white portal blocking the way to a staircase made of crystals. "See? What'd I tell you? There's going to be a bunch of super powered individuals getting in our way. That portal will take us to the first of them." Mew remarks while gesturing both his hands out towards said portal, and Kairi folds her arms together against her chest and states "Oh please, for all you know it could be a trap."

"If suddenly being sent to another location to fight someone doesn't qualify as a trap, then I'd really like to know your definition of the word." Mew says, chuckling afterwards as he looks over his shoulder at Kairi, who puffs her cheeks slightly in annoyance and then says with a bit of a smirk on her face "Then why don't we go into that portal and see if you're right or not?" "Not to sound arrogant, but I know I'm right about this portal. Therefore it's really not a trap since a trap requires someone to not be aware of it." Mew states before turning to look back at the portal.

As the two of them start to walk towards the portal, Mew examines the room nice and slow, though he lessens his pace so much that Kairi eventually walks past him, leading to her pausing and turning around in order to ask "What are you even doing? The portal is right there, we can just go in without hesitation." While she forcibly gestures towards it with her right thumb a few times, Mew lowers his head to look at her and says "The room is obviously an indication of what type of person we'll be facing."

"…It could just be a design flourish for the pyramid." Kairi hesitantly suggests, but Mew smiles and teasingly asks "I'd think the Aurian would know a lot more about this pyramid than I would, honestly." With a bit of a flustered blush, Kairi glances away from Mew and states "W-Well of course I would know about what's in the pyramid. That's History 101 for all Aurians."

"My common sense tells me you're trying to pull the wool over my eyes." Mew says nonchalantly right away, and Kairi looks at him and exclaims with great insistence "No!" But then after a few seconds of Mew giving her an eyebrow raised glare while keeping a smile on his face Kairi quickly turns around to hide her embarrassment and admits "O-Ok, that's not true at all. All we're ever taught about the Sages' Pyramid is that it houses the Neo Drive. And no one ever tries to look inside the pyramid because they are afraid of alerting Gravitus, even when he's off-world."

Kairi then turns back around and looks at Mew, stating to him firmly "But it's not like you can just assume what the person we're facing is like based on what a room looks like." With another chuckle, Mew admits "That's true, for all I know it could be a design flourish like you said. But if I had to take a go at it, I'd guess that our opponent utilizes both fire and ice in their fighting style. If so, that'll be an easy first opponent." In the face of Mew's confidence during what he said, Kairi couldn't help but ask "How can an amateur like you sound so experienced?"

"I'm not an amateur. I've been the Elemental Overlord for five years now." Mew points out, and Kairi widened her eyes and says with a bit of a stutter in her voice as she glanced at him "W-What? That's insane, you weren't even a teenager when that happened." "It's not that unbelievable…Especially with some of the stuff I've seen. What I'm trying to get across here is that once you get used to the fact that you live in a universe with a bunch of fantasy elements, it's not too hard to get savvy about stuff like this." Mew replies simply with more nonchalance.

"I-Is that so?" Kairi remarks, and with a nod of his head Mew tells her upfront "Yeah. You've thrown out hints that you're somewhat of a gamer, possibly even an anime fan, so I don't think it'd be too hard for you to pick up some savviness while we climb this pyramid. For now though, we'd best just check this portal out." With all he needed to say out of his mind, Mew continued his advance towards the portal while Kairi followed him after taking a moment to stare at him and think _"…He's been fighting since he was eleven…That's one year younger than I was when I learned to fight. Hmph…"_

She then followed Mew to the portal, but before they entered Mew stuck his right hand through it and remarked "Just to be on the safe side, I'll see what the atmosphere is like." A brief shiver went through Mew's entire body as he exaggerated the sensation by forcibly clattering his teeth together a few times and then pulling his hand from the portal to remark "It's pretty cold over there. I'm going to give you some protection against the cold real quick before we go."

"…I've been living above the arctic for all my life. You think I can't handle a little cold temperature?" Kairi remarks while giving Mew a confident smirk, and with a shrug Mew says "Alright, suit yourself." He then walked right through the portal without another word, the suddenness of his action and nonchalance in his voice making Kairi quickly follow after him while remarking "Hey!" bluntly.

The travel through the portal was instantaneous, and as such when Kairi was sent out the other side and landed on the ground she was caught so off-guard that she ended up not being able to keep her balance and began to tumble forward. However, Mew was there in front of her all kneeled down, where with a snap of his fingers he creates a big fluffy cloud to catch her. She falls face-first onto the cloud and bounces off it once before settling into it's fluffiness, and with a grin Mew remarks "So I'm guessing that's your first time going through a portal?"

Muffled by her face being against the cloud, Kairi says "Of course it is! But I would've caught myself before I landed on the ground, ok?" She then began to lift herself up rather hastily, but Mew clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and said urgently "I wouldn't rush if I were you, you see-" It was too late for him to get his advice out as Kairi stood up fully and immediately began to lose her balance again, this time with her placing a hand on her head and stating "Oh god, everything is shaking in front of me…"

Snapping his fingers again as he stands up, Mew surrounds Kairi with a wrap of clouds to hold her steadily in place, saying after a sigh "Traveling through time and space like that can be nauseating for the inexperienced. Just stay still for a few seconds and you'll be fine." Though she felt dizzy inside the cloud wrap, Kairi did listen to Mew's advice and waited just a few seconds for the feeling to go away. Once she appeared to be better Mew got rid of all the clouds with a thought and Kairi fell to the ground softly.

"Ummm…Thanks for the help." Kairi said after ensuring that her body was stable on the ground. Mew just responded with a smile before swiftly changing subjects to the location they had been sent to. "So where do you think we are?" He inquired in a way that suggested he already knew the answer. Kairi looked around and was surprised to see a bunch of small lights covering a black expanse above her. Even with all those stars the area was rather dim with light, but there was enough of it to tell that her and Mew stood on a brown-ish rocky world at the moment.

"…Don't tell me we got sent to another planet." Kairi said while shivering a bit, to which Mew explained to her while raising a pointer finger up "Not just any planet either. We're right on the cold side of Mercury." "M-Mercury? Why would we be sent all the way to Mercury?" Kairi inquired in a moment of disbelief on her part.

"You know, I'm more curious to know how you can breathe in space." Mew said, and his misguided priorities cause Kairi to exclaim to him "How can YOU?!" Pointing at himself for a moment, Mew makes a swirl of wind wrap around his body for just a second while he explains "I keep a veil of air up around my body. It allows me to breath and speak even in the deepest depths of space."

"…Ok. Well you have to remember that though I look human, Aurians are technically an alien race. We are just naturally able to breathe in space. From what I read, the original home world of the Aurians might not even have had an atmosphere." Kairi exposits while folding her arms together, and then Mew turns around and says "Well either way, we were sent here for a reason. Hey! Is anyone out there?!"

In just a few seconds, someone starts to approach the two of them from afar rather sluggishly. In ten seconds they have only moved a few feet forward, which causes Mew to raise an eyebrow and wonder what was taking them so long. Kairi was more impatient and exclaimed to the person "Hey jackass! You got company, so get over here!" Mew flinched at how loud Kairi was, and glanced back at her to say "Hey now, he might just have woken up, you shouldn't-"

"H-H-Hey there! How's it g-g-going?" A fast-talking, clattering voice suddenly speaks out to Mew, causing him to stop talking and turn to look at the person speaking. It was a guy about half a foot shorter than him that was wearing a generic brawler's gi with frost-blue colors and some icicles protruding out of his buff shoulders. He also has on white martial artist style baggy pants and sandals made out of raw ice. His body's skin is pure white while his face was dark purple with his face stuck frozen in a smile and his cheeks and eyebrows covered in frost. His hair was also frosty and spiked up in multiple directions.

The man quickly raised his hand up and grabbed onto Mew's own to shake it rapidly while stating hastily "P-P-Pleasure to m-meet you! My n-n-name is Aurian Mercury, the f-f-first of the p-prestigious P-Planetary A-Aurians!" While Mew could only say "Ummm…" awkwardly while Kairi looked at the man called Mercury, another voice slowly spoke out "…Brother…Why do you never say 'WE'RE' Mercury?"

"B-B-Because you always t-t-take your sweet time getting to the guests!" Mercury replies to the other voice while continuing to clatter. He then looked at Mew and said "F-F-Fine, here's my other half. B-be nice to him." All of a sudden the man lets go of Mew and flips his body around, where there was a completely different looking person there. This person had a char black gi with orange flames on it, the same pants, coal sandals, orange body skin, yellow facial skin with bright red scars all around and hair made of pure red flames that didn't melt the ice hair of his other half.

Slowly, this part of Mercury raises his hand up and shakes Mew's own, saying in a drawn out manner "…Sorry for my brother's rudeness…He doesn't know how to take it slow…I'm also Aurian Mercury, and it's nice to meet you." Once this half of Mercury pulls his hand away, Mew scratches the side of his head and says "Ummm…What's a Planetary Aurian?"

"I thought they were a myth…The Planetary Aurians are supposedly nine legendary warriors that live on the nine planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, but I've heard that they fight for other worlds as well. Mercury…Is your title 'The Ice-Hot Brawler'?" Before the flaming side could answer, Mercury's body flips around so the icy side could state happily "Y-Y-Yes ma'am! Isn't it a pretty c-c-chill title?" Kairi immediately glares at Mercury in annoyance and says to Mew "Your rule doesn't prevent me from slapping other people for bad jokes, right?"

"It does now." Mew remarks nonchalantly much to Kairi's disbelief, but before she could bitch about the matter Mercury states "S-S-S-So…You're the new Elemental Overlord, r-r-right? I've heard rumors about you while going to other worlds." Mew folded his arms and curiously remarked "I'm surprised my reputation extends past the Earth."

"…Of course…Why wouldn't it?" The hot side stated, but before Mew's ego could get inflated anymore from Kairi's point-of-view she waves her hands out and stated "Wait a second here…Why did that portal we took even lead us here in the first place?" The ice-side of Mercury pauses after that, leading to the hot-side stating after a drawn out sigh "…Brother…You're forgetting our duty here again…"

Slapping his forehead, the icy-side of Mercury states "Y-Y-Yeah I suppose I shouldn't get too comfortable here." He then draws his hand away from his face and states "So-so-sorry you two…But there's going to be a f-f-fight here." Mew didn't seem at all surprised by that bit of news, while Kairi looked at Mercury in surprise and exclaimed "What?! But you guys are supposed to be protectors? Why would you have to-"

As Mew glances at her over his shoulder midway through her sentence, Kairi slowly realizes what's going on and says to Mercury in stunned disbelief "Y-You're working for Gravitus, aren't you?" Mercury flips around to the hot-side, with him tiredly remarking "…Y-Yeah, we work for Gravitus. Sorry if us warriors of myth are disappointing you…" Kairi stamps forward a couple steps and exclaims "How DARE you?! Why would you betray your people and work for that monster?!"

"…Well you're only half right there…" Mercury comments, and before Kairi can get at him Mew holds his right arm out and remarks "Kairi, I don't think we've got the whole story here. Don't go beating up Mercury yet over this. So Mercury, I'm guessing Gravitus has something on you that's forcing you to comply?" The icy-side flips to the front and states "N-N-Not telling you. If you happen to w-w-win, maaaaaaybe I'll say so-so-something…"

Mew slams a fist against an open hand while smiling, telling Mercury with a great deal of excitement in his voice "Ok then. The two of us will defeat you easily and then you'll have to tell us the truth." Mercury raises his eyebrows to the best of his ability upon realizing the situation he's in and he lifts a finger up, stating as a bit of mist comes from his mouth "O-O-Oh yeah…There's t-t-two of you, isn't there? Umm…I-I invoke the Rite of Singularity."

"…The Rite of Singularity?" Mew said in confusion, and Kairi groaned and said "Ah great, he invoked the Rite of Singularity. It's an absolute contract devised by the Ten Sages that Aurians can use to ensure a one-on-one battle. If this contract is broken, the offending party is drained of all their aura and killed." "Huh, that's a pretty useful tactic then if one would want to deal with a large army by just targeting the commander." Mew commented on.

"But only an Aurian can activate the rite." Kairi then states before stepping past Mew and looking at Mercury fiercely, remarking while punching her open hand twice "Then I'll fight him." Mew however objects to that calmly by telling her "No no no, you're still recovering from our battle. Let me fight him. I want to see what these Planetary Aurians are made of anyways."

"…I was going to ask you to fight us anyways, Elemental Overlord." The hot-side said, which insulted Kairi a bit and caused her to turn around and exclaim to Mew while holding a hand before her chest "Mercury is a disgrace to his race! I should be punishing him for what he's doing!" "…Again, you're only half right." The hot-side of Mercury states calmly, though he lets out a tired side afterwards.

"Kairi, calm down. You're supposed to be learning some things right now anyways. I'm guessing since Mercury has accepted me as the one he wanted to fight, the contract has been put into effect anyways." Mew remarks, and after Kairi glances behind her to see Mercury nod his head Kairi growls for a few seconds before letting go of the issue and walking past Mew while stating "Just end this quickly, ok?"

"Hmm, last I checked I'm the teacher here, so I say how long the lesson goes for." Mew says nonchalantly before he steps forward ready to face Mercury. However, Mercury goes back a few more feet to put some fair distance between him and Mew, but before they begin their fight Mew asked "So what happens if the planet rotates to face the sun? I can handle it and I imagine you can too, but Kairi's not going to be so lucky I'd say…"

"Nah, she'll be fine. We have a barrier around this p-p-part of the planet that cuts down the temperature and b-b-brightness of the sun immensely." Ice-side states, but the hot-side remarks "…Because Frosty here has a low-heat tolerance…" "L-L-Like you have the right to complain when you can't even handle the cold, b-b-brother…" "…Well it's not my fault our bodies are like this…" "It m-m-might as well h-h-have been!"

The two sides of Mercury debate until Mew folds his arms together, tilts his head and remarks "So umm…Are we going to fight? The two snap out of it and state at the same time "Y-Y-Yeah yeah…" Mercury's icy-side then leans forward slightly and swings both it's fists out, summoning forth a white-blue aura around his body. Mew swings his right hand out and summons forth his sword, igniting it with fire and stating "Lets see what you are capable of."

"W-W-Wahoo!" The ice-side suddenly proclaims before he sprints forward like a roadrunner, stopping in front of Mew and lashing a fist out in front of his stomach that hits the blade of Mew's sword as he holds it downward, with the aura from his fist splitting apart into two frosty halves that curve around the blade a bit. Mew is surprised a bit when the icy-half of Mercury isn't bothered by the heat of his blade, so he responds by trying to increase the intensity of the flames and swing the blade forward to create an arc of fire in the air.

But before Mew can even budge the blade an inch Mercury falls backwards and lands on his hands, leaping back just enough that he is able to dodge Mew's strike. Once Mew was forced to keep his blade swung upward for a moment Mercury sprints forward again with the same speed as before and goes for two quick punches, one at Mew's left hip and the other on his right shoulder. The aura spreads out into two unique snowflake patterns for a millisecond from the point of impact before Mercury is met with a quick punch to the right of his jaw by Mew's left fist, causing his head to jerk to the side while he stumbles back a bit.

As Mew then lowers his right arm he feels something odd in his struck shoulder. A numbing, chilling sensation slowly grows within his arm into he can't feel anything there. The same goes for his left hip. Oddly enough, no frost has grown on the struck parts of his body despite what Mew was suspecting of Mercury's powers. The numbing of his arm slowed down his ability to swing his sword, but he had to fight back against Mercury's next attack.

To the best of his ability, Mew swings his sword down across the ground to slice through the planet's surface and send a wave of rocky debris forward to stop Mercury from just running right at him again. There was a jolt of pain in his arm from making this motion, but Mew just grimaced before putting on a grin and stepping back twice with both feet and raising his left hand up to quickly fire out electric balls into each of the larger stones that fall onto the ground.

"_Hmm, so his power isn't necessarily ice based…" _Mew thought to himself as Mercury skid back a bit, quickly stood upright and lifted and lowered his feet off the ground a few times before saying "Y-You're good s-s-so far! But watch this!" Mercury then tries to sprint at Mew again, but the very moment he steps on one of the electrified stones it blows up and causes him to consumed by an erupting pillar of sparks that goes up a mile high. Mew suspected he got Mercury paralyzed with that move, but the man quickly leaped out of the electricity and flew right at Mew while his arms were held back and fists were clenched tight.

It was clear he was going for an overhead assault, so Mew raised his sword up and let go it so it rested on his open palm, spinning it around with his mind to intercept the moment where Mercury twisted his leg around in a single rotation and threw his right foot down into the center of Mew's sword handle, putting enough force to send out another frosted split of aura that pokes into Mew's hand for a moment. Mercury then quickly kicks his other foot down and flips back onto the ground a few feet away from Mew without landing on the mines or getting hit by the sword.

But Mew attempts to rectify that sound problem by grabbing onto his sword and bringing it down in front of him like a guillotine towards the ground. But midway through his sword swing became slower as the effect of Mercury's kick starts to work it's magic on his hand. By the time he cleaved the sword down into the ground to magnetize the rest of the mines towards him and hit Mercury in the process, Mew was already being rushed at by Mercury again.

Mew was forced to let go of his sword and sprint back ten feet in an instant before he ate a right hook to the face, but Mercury swung his other hand down and uses the top of the planted sword's hilt to vault forward and land on the ground, spinning around slickly twice over so he can push himself closer to Mew and go on to another attack. Meanwhile, Mew's sword attracts the mines the it's location and causes them all to go off in a singular blast of electricity.

Mew raises his left hand up and takes the spreading electricity into his grasp mentally, pulling back on his arm to command three streams of thick electricity to fly towards Mercury from behind. Simultaneously, Mercury is going for two palm thrusts towards Mew's stomach. But before he can be successful in his endeavor two of the electricity streams strike him in the elbows, which briefly pause his movements enough for Mew to finally attack Mercury.

Knowing that Mercury's arms wouldn't be held back for long, Mew starts off by leaping into the air to get out of the way of the punches, and he quickly flips over to the other side of Mercury's body so he can hold his left arm back and call his sword back to his grasp, and once he had it in his hand he held it up while grasping it with his other hand. The numbness in his right arm meant nothing when both arms were working in tandem, and with flames ignited in the blade Mew brought his sword down towards Mercury.

A clean slash of burning fire razes the air and strikes through the center of Mercury's body as he turns around. He had just enough time to pull his head back before it got struck as well, though the bottom of his chin did suffer a small nick. The cut opens a long vertical scar in Mercury's body that makes blood spurt out for a moment and wasn't very deep. Mew's sword then slams against the ground and creates a miniature eruption of magma that launches Mercury backwards.

Mercury doesn't fall on his back, however, and uses his hands to perform a handstand and then rotate his body around so when he lands it was now the hot-side that was front and center. The coal colored eyes of the hot-side glance dully to the right while the ice-side states "Y-Y-Yeow! I-I need to take a f-f-few moments to cover this up. D-D-Don't screw up in the meantime b-brother!" After a tired sigh the hot-side of Mercury looks at Mew and puts his fists up while summoning a brown-red aura around his body.

"…He's always like this. But you get used to it after being stuck together for a long while…" Mercury states, and the ice-side stutters out "N-Now w-w-wait a second, w-we aren't s-s-supposed to say anything y-yet!" Mew, meanwhile, is swinging his right arm around so quickly he'd be kicking up a tornado if he didn't keep things under control, stating to Mercury afterwards "I think I've figured out your trick anyways. Your brother's aura is infused with the power of a cold temperature. I'm surprised, I thought I was immune to the cold, but I guess it's only if it's connected to actual ice-based products. Numbing my nerves is also a pretty cool tactic, and I'm guessing both of your nerves are permanently numb since it took quite a bit of electricity to get your brother to pause."

"…Wow, you're attentive." Mercury says in as much of an impressed voice as he can muster, and Mew explained with a bit of an apologetic tone "Unfortunately that means I've already figured out your aura's gimmick. You have the power of a hot temperature, right?" Mercury slowly nodded his head, but then Kairi suddenly snaps at Mew from afar and exclaims "What the hell are you doing?! Just go all-out and win instantly!"

Mew turns to Kairi and sees her folding her arms in an irritated manner, but says to her happily "There's nothing wrong with some mid-battle conversation. It's all a part of learning to loosen up Kairi, so just keep paying attention." "He's the enemy!" Kairi points out in sheer disbelief, and Mew told her straight away "Yeah, but he's more of an antagonist than a straight-up villain. I'm giving him a good and fun fight, so just stand back and keep learning from the experience, ok?"

Kairi frustratingly puffs her cheeks out and folds her arms against her chest while growling internally, and Mew turns back to Mercury and says in an apologetic tone "Sorry about that, she's got some things to learn about fighting." "…Thank god I never had a sister…" Mercury's hot-side remarks quietly before he looks at Mew and says "…By the way, I don't think you've figured me out entirely. I'll show you in…just a moment…"

After letting out a tired yawn, Mercury runs forward at a slower pace than his brother, but still fast enough that Mew had to be careful in reacting to the man's movements. Mercury swings his left fist upward once he was just a couple feet from Mew's body, and Mew ducks his head back to avoid getting hit in the chin. But a thick expanse of aura emerges from Mercury's fist and whiffs Mew in the face, which causes him to immediately feel a deep amount of heat well up inside of his head.

But the temperature increase stops way before it can reach a boiling point, though it does leave Mew's face sweating profusely as he lifts his head back up. _"Hmmm, so he's got a longer range for his attacks…" _Mew thought to himself as he took his sword and leaped back, though he found his vision feeling a bit soggy because of all the sweat on his face. So long as he could sense Mercury's power though, the vision impairment wasn't a problem.

The first thing Mew did after leaping back was throw a punch at the ground and send forth a series of cracks at Mercury. From Mew's knuckles emerged a few seeds and some water to help with their accelerated growth, The cracks around Mercury's feet are then quickly filled with cacti that rise up and stick their needles into the skin of Mercury's arms and chest before the heat from his aura dehydrates the cacti entirely. "…Ummm, I don't feel any of this…What are you doing?" Mercury inquires, but while he was distracted with those needles Mew ran at him and took the bottom of his sword handle upward, jabbing it against the bottom of Mercury's chin and knocking him off the ground.

This also dislodged the needles from his body, and Mew scattered them aside as he leaped up to pursue Mercury. He coats his sword in thick ice and tries to swing it at Mercury, but the man recovers from the earlier blow and throws both of his fists down at roughly the same spot to strike at the side of Mew's blade and melt away the ice while also sending out a shockwave of aura that pushes Mew back to the surface of the planet on his backside.

Mercury then positions himself downward and falls towards Mew while keeping his fists held out for a dive bomb attack. Mew held his sword up with his mind to prevent Mercury from hitting him with either his fists or aura. But because of the gravity of the planet and the way Mercury hit the blade, it wasn't long before he began to flip himself around to try and kick Mew's stomach, but Mew counters this movement by thrusting his hands up to fire a blast of air at Mercury's legs.

This pushes Mercury back in the opposite direction, giving Mew enough time to roll to the right and out of the way. Along the way though, he had taken a few moments to look at Mercury's body some more. The man had two sets of feet fused together, giving him no heels and barely any ankles. The fused hands had no fingernails, and there was oddly no Aurian drive bracelets on either arm. By the way Mercury fought, Mew suspected that he had to be double-jointed as well.

After making this analysis, Mew drew his sword back into his hand and kicked onto his feet with the help of a burst of wind. Mercury landed on the ground after flipping around twice, and then with a glance to the left Mercury stated "…He's too fast for me brother…What do we do now?" "I-I-I haven't g-g-gotten this healed up y-y-yet! We'll have t-t-to use our ultimate a-a-attack to finish this quickly." The ice-side states.

"Wait, before you fire off your ultimate attack…Where's your Aurian drives?" Mew inquired. Mercury raises his eyebrows up slightly and said "…Oh, those things? Umm…We don't exactly need those anymore…Apparently once you've used a drive for a certain amount of time…It just becomes one with your body. Most Aurians don't live long enough for that to happen though…" "Huh, fascinating. Anyways, sorry about interrupting you, go ahead and use your ultimate attack now." Mew said while bracing his sword in both hands and applying a heavy, cold gale to his face to help blow the sweat off.

"…Well, I hope you put your all into this, brother." Mercury states as he lifts the right arm from his side up, and the icy side remarks while lifting his right arm "W-W-We'll probably l-l-lose if we don't go a-all-out!" Their two separate auras appear and start to blend together into a singular unit of aura, and both of them exclaim without any of their verbal tics "TEMPERATURE TORNADO!" In unison the two kick their feet off the ground and launch themselves straight towards Mew, their outstretched arms acting as copter blades as they begin to whirl around so quickly that they are quickly unable to be seen within their own tornado of blue and red aura.

This violent tornado of temperatures hot and cold flies right at Mew, and Mew is quick to identify the threat of the attack. Consuming him with hot and cold would quickly overwhelm his body's senses and make it so his functions would cease to function in a matter of moments. As such, defense was most vital for Mew in order to secure victory now. He started off by thrusting his left hand out and created a heavy gale that pushes against Mercury's ultimate attack and slows him down slightly.

This gives Mew enough time to kick off the ground and get high above Mercury, but it's not long before he resumes at his normal speed and curves his path to fly up after Mew. Mew uses the wind again to blow against the rotation of Mercury's attack, hoping to stall it out that way. But Mercury is smart enough to reverse his rotation fast enough so he's able to speed up in the opposite direction and go faster towards Mew.

This forces Mew to take his sword and swing it down hard to repel Mercury back, and he then flips back and dives down to the ground before Mercury can hit him. With wind out of the question for stopping the tornado, Mew dispels his sword and holds both his arms up while focusing his energy at the ground around him. With Mercury redirecting his path to spiral down towards him, Mew thrusts forth four large pillars of rock from the planet itself, breaking them apart and converting the insides to diamonds so they can not be easily affected by the tornado's different temperatures.

The four pillars of diamond slam against the sides of Mercury's tornado, and instantly the man is halted, with the man suspended in the center of all four pillars. "…Told you he'd stop our attack…" The hot-side of Mercury states dryly, but before the ice-side could respond to that Mew decides to put an end to the battle by taking two of the pillars and having them grab around Mercury's body like hands, and after the other two pillars retract into the ground Mew pulls down on his arms and has the diamond hands throw Mercury straight down at a very high velocity.

Mercury crashes into the planet's surface with enough force to create a round mile-wide crater that Mew has to leap back in order to avoid falling into, though he does stand at the edge of it and dispel the diamonds he pulled from the planet after a few seconds of looking into the dust cloud created by Mercury's impact. After a few more good seconds of waiting around Mew leaped into the crater and landed close to the center, where he found Mercury lying down with his hot-side facing up and the ice-side currently stuck against the floor. He was pretty beaten looking from appearance alone, and it was confirmed that Mew had won once Mercury lifted his head up a bit and said "Ok…Ok…You win. We give up."

Mew smiled at Mercury as he kneeled down and held his hand out, saying to them both kindly "Then take my hand, I'll help you back up." The ice-side of Mercury promptly forces his hand up and grabs onto Mew's own, and in a matter of seconds Mew had gotten the warrior standing upright, though with the damage he took it was a few seconds before he was completely stable. Mew folded his arms together and said "That was a nice technique you had there. I was quite impressed."

"…Well, it was something we came up with a long time ago…" Mercury's hot-side commented. "I-I-It could stand to be more effective though…" The icy-side then says, and Mew remarked confidently towards the two "Well that's something you'll figure out in due time. Now then, I believe you two owe me an explanation about why you're working for Gravitus. However, first I'm going to call Kairi over."

Lifting himself off the ground so he's floating above the crater, Mew turns to Kairi and exclaimed while raising his hand up "Hey! Mercury's defeated, you can come on over now!" Kairi, after blinking a few times and saying in a grumbling manner "Took you long enough…" flew over to the crater and landed inside of it as Mew descended back to the ground. When she sees Mercury alive and somewhat well, Kairi immediately widens her eyes and thrusts her arms out while stating "Why is he still alive?!"

Mercury lowers his head and says "…She's really out for blood…" As Kairi runs over to join up with Mew he says nonchalantly "Calm down Kairi, there's no reason to kill Mercury. Like I said, he isn't outright villainous." Kairi stops a good ten feet away from Mercury and brandishes a finger fiercely at him, exclaiming "He turned against his people!"

"…How many times do I have to say your only half-right…? Ugh…" Mercury bemoans while Mew shakes his hands in front of his chest and states nonchalantly "Just give Mercury a moment to explain himself. I'm sure he has a very good reason for working for Gravitus…And that is probably related to the state of your body, right Mercury?" Mew glances behind himself as he asks that.

Mercury nodded his head, and while Mew held an arm out to keep Kairi from advancing any closer to him Mercury sighs and states "…See brother, we never would've won against someone this perceptive…Yeah, you got that right…You see, long ago…" "Y-Y-You're going to take t-t-too long! I'm telling the s-s-story!" The ice-side says before flipping himself around so he was at the front. He then stated quickly and stuttering "B-B-Basically…S-S-Some asshole magician decided it'd be a f-f-funny idea to fuse me and my brother together into one b-b-being. Then we became a Planetary Aurian and ended up getting o-our ass kicked by G-G-Gravitus not long a-af-after…And he then offered to use his r-r-resources to try and split us a-apart."

"And how long ago was that?" Kairi pointed out, and Mercury stated "T-T-Two-thousand years ago roughly…B-B-But it takes a lot of effort to find out how to split people apart, l-l-let alone get the re-re-resources to accomplish that task. One of our comrades a-a-almost has everyone needed to s-s-split us apart, but until that happens we're still working for Gravitus out of f-f-fear…" Once the explanation was at an end, Mew looked at Kairi and gave her a smiling glance while parting his hands out a bit and shrugging.

Kairi glanced at Mercury for a bit and pouted, but after a bit of stubborn growling she throws her arms into the air and exclaims "Gah, fine! I guess there's no need to kill him…He's basically a pansy anyways." "T-T-That's pretty cold." Mercury states, and the only thing stopping Kairi from punching him in the face is Mew nonchalantly holding his left hand out and laying it against Kairi's face to keep her back while he turns to Mercury and states "Don't worry about it, she's a work in progress."

"G-G-Good luck there…" Mercury states, and with a gesture of his fingers from his forehead in a salute Mew states "And good luck to you two in getting split back apart. I hope your comrade is successful. Oh, and thanks a lot for the fun battle." He then turns back to Kairi and uses both of his hands to quickly turn her around by gently grabbing her by the shoulders, by this point her anger subsided enough that he was able to do this without getting hit accidentally. He then gestured towards the portal without another word while the hot-side of Mercury said "…Come back and visit us any time…"

The two sides of Mercury raised their hands up to give a fond farewell, and Mew and Kairi crawl out of the crater and begin to make their way to the portal. Along the way, Mew folds his arms behind his head and states "See? If you had killed them, we never would've gotten a happy and honest farewell from them both." Before they went through the portal, Kairi walked past Mew and said firmly "…Genuine traitors should be put down…That's all I'm going to say about this." As she leaped into the portal, Mew raised his eyebrows out of curiosity towards her words and paused in thought before joining her for the trip back to the Sages' Pyramid.

_Next Time: Phantasmal Innocence_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Phantom of Venus**

Dropping out of the portal to Mercury back into the Sages' Pyramid, Mew and Kairi turn around and watch as said portal moves off to the right, thus freeing the way up to the wide staircase behind it. Mew then folds his arms together and remarks "So one down, eight to go…I wonder what other type of people we're going to meet along the way?" Kairi glares at Mew from behind and says to him "You shouldn't be so curious about fighting our enemies. If this is how you're going to behave, I wouldn't be surprised if you try to strike up a friendly conversation with Gravitus."

Mew pauses for a moment at that, and then turns around to face Kairi and says while putting a serious expression and gesturing out his right hand "Kairi, Mercury and Gravitus are two completely different types of people. I can feel safe holding a friendly conversation with Mercury because he's not outright villainous. Gravitus is a monster who has ruled his own people with an iron fist for two-thousand years. You have every right to punch me if I try to hold a conversation with him that's anything but antagonistic."

"…Well at least you got your priorities straight regarding Gravitus. But you should still stop talking with the Planetary Aurians." Kairi states, and Mew proceeds to turn around and mention as he starts to head for the staircase "We've only encountered one of them so far. Don't get your panties in a bunch about this until I've made a habit out of speaking with them." While following Mew, Kairi scowls a bit and says "I really don't know which of you humans came up with that phrase, but I dislike it with a passion."

"I think you force yourself to dislike a lot of things, Kairi. It's not healthy to do that. Let me help you with that by offering another topic of conversation…Like why is it that there are nine Planetary Aurians despite there being only eight planets?" Mew inquired in a nonchalant manner while raising his right pointer finger up, and as they make a turn from one staircase to another that ascends in the opposite direction of the first Kairi states in puzzlement "What? There's nine planets in total."

"No, we don't really count Pluto anymore…Or maybe we do, I don't know, we can't really seem to make up our minds on that one. I guess the person who assigned the Planetary Aurians to their roles would know the answer as to why he included Pluto." Mew says, and Kairi remarks "Well I hope you aren't expecting me to know who is responsible. Up until today I thought the Planetary Aurians were a myth, after all."

Mew glanced back at Kairi for a moment and then looked ahead, thinking to himself _"Hmmm…That doesn't sound right at all. There's no way Auris couldn't have known about the Planetary Aurians, especially since Mercury said he existed two-thousand years ago. This is something I'll have to keep an eye on…" _Mew's thoughts are then interrupted when Kairi says to him "Besides, there's no guarantee that we'll even encounter all nine Planetary Aurians. One of them could easily be dead by now."

"That's asking too much of the universe, Kairi. Trust me, we'll see all nine of them by the time we've reached the top of the pyramid." Mew replies with confidence, and Kairi says with a smirk on her face "Ten bucks say you're wrong." "Oh? You guys use US currency? I honestly thought you'd use Canadian currency since you're closer to there." Mew says with some semblance of intrigue in his voice.

"US Currency is easier to copy up here, or so mom has told me…Just because we're close to Canada doesn't mean we have to follow their laws or way of currency, especially since they don't even know we're up here." Kairi replies, and Mew then says to her "So what, would that mean that Canadians invaded Aurian territory or vice versa?" "Why does that even matter? If the Canadians ended up having a problem with us, I'd like to see them try and instigate a war." Kairi states firmly.

"Well lets not try and get antagonistic with your neighbors to the south." Mew says with a humored chuckle as the two of them finally reach the second floor of the pyramid. Here the floor is more in line with what Mew expected of the place, with it being covered in a blue mosaic crystal pattern. But the walls were still off as they were filled with cylinders containing a hazy, peach colored gas of unknown origin. Another portal lied at the opposite end of the room that was the exact same color as the one before.

Mew folded his arms together and said "Ok, so next up should be Venus. It's a pretty lethal planet, but thankfully you have an Elemental Overlord on your side Kairi." "Joy." Kairi replied sarcastically to Mew's enthusiasm as the boy turns around and points at her, and in a matter of seconds a swirling whirlwind of cold wind wraps around Kairi's body and ruffles her tucked in shirt a bit much to her surprise. The wind stays wrapped around her in a veil that can barely be seen, and Kairi looks up at Mew and says "What's this about?"

"Haven't you done any research on Venus before? It's got a toxic atmosphere with a temperature reaching almost a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This veil I gave you will protect you from Venus' lethality so you can fight the next battle without worry." Mew says, and Kairi looked at him while blinking a few times in surprise before stating "Wait, I'll be fighting the next battle?" Mew nodded his head and gave a thumbs-up of approval before telling her "You should be fine now after our battle, so it's time for you to handle a fight."

Kairi looked at Mew in disbelief for a few second with a slightly agape mouth and an unaware blush, as though the faith he put in her capabilities made her feel good inside. But she quickly shakes her head and says "You're going to be advising me throughout the battle, aren't you?" "I probably will. Depends on the opponent, depends on how you fight. Try and remember a bit about how I fought Mercury, and analysis what your opponent is capable of while fighting." Mew says while raising a finger up.

"I'll perform even better than you and defeat the next Planetary Aurian in under five minutes." Kairi says with a confident smirk and lowering of her eyelids, and Mew scratches the side of his head with a forcibly befuddled expression as he says "What is your obsession with winning in under five minutes?" "Does it matter?" Kairi inquired with a bit of an annoyed glance at Mew for having an issue with something that meager.

With a shrug, Mew explains "I just find it odd. But hey, if you are doing it for the sake of doing it I won't object any further. Lets just move on though…" To make sure that there's no more stalling, Mew turns around and heads straight for the portal, with Kairi following close behind not long after. "From the myths I heard, the next Planetary Aurian is known as 'The Gaseous Phantasm'." Kairi stated, and before he put his whole body through the portal Mew said "So we might be facing a ghost? Hmm, that'll be an interesting opponent for you to fight."

The two then finally went inside the portal after meandering about with their conversations for the last few minutes. The leap through time and space once again dropped them off onto another planet, but this time they are quickly greeted by a violent dust storm spread across the entire barren rocky landscape that was the surface of Venus. The veils of air Mew and Kairi wore around their bodies helped in keeping the lethal dust away from their eyes, but the winds themselves still were able to pass them by and ruffle their clothes and hair.

"You holding up ok?" Mew inquired as he stands upright and places his hands in his pocket, casually taking in the lethal, dusty Venus atmosphere while his veil of air stuck up around him. Kairi was bracing her arms in front of her body while fighting against the strength of the winds in the mean time. "I-I'm doing fine." Kairi insisted on saying despite how her actions contradict her words, and Mew immediately called her out on it but with some degree of empathy by saying "You don't have to act tough, your strength is weakened because you leapt through the portal. But I think you're faring better now than you did when you went to Mercury earlier."

"Y-Yeah…Of course I am!" Kairi exclaimed before she stepped forward a bit and pulled her arms away from the rest of her body, and Mew raised his eyebrows and said "You know, yelling is a good way to alert the enemy that we're here. Good thinking." He didn't act sarcastic at all, but Kairi assumed he was being that way and immediately turned at him and said "It wasn't my intention to alert the enemy!"

"Calm down." Mew said while waving his right hand downward, explaining to Kairi "Getting the enemy's attention is not a bad idea. We'd be better off having them come to us then us trying to search the entire planet for them." "W-Well I wasn't that loud. I doubt the enemy has heard us from here…" Kairi remarks while folding her arms in embarrassment for how loud she was being.

While Mew smiled at Kairi for her embarrassment, the two of them suddenly heard a whisper coming from afar. _"…hello…" _The quiet voice of an unknown entity causes the two of them to turn forwards and watch as the dust storm slows down to a whisper in a dome-like area around the two of them. In the air something begins to move forward, approaching slowly until it was clear into view. The odd thing though was that the being that approached them didn't have flesh on their body, but seemed to instead consist of nothing but a series brown cloths that wrapped around what could be considered a human figure.

However, the cloths do not wrap around the area where the hands, feet and head were, and when it comes to the limbs a series of highly-condensed streams of gases were fired out to propel the being through the air. When the cloths make it to the area seven feet in front of Mew and Kairi, it stops moving and clearly shows that whatever is the owner of the cloths is young considering how petite the frame of the body is. As the gases from it's limbs convert into miniature spurts, some bright, light-blue gases above the neck of the cloths form a head without 'hair', and barely one could see a slightly feminine pair of eyelashes on the head.

Mew folded his arms together and said "Hello there Venus. My name is Mew, and this person with me is Kairi, a fellow Aurian." While Mew gestured towards Kairi for her introduction, Kairi raised her right hand up and said "…Hello?" For she did not know if the being in front of her could actually speak with the way her body was. With a slight movement of her eyebrows downward to indicate irritation, the series of cloths and gases known as Venus whispered with an echo like a ghost would _"…You are…opponents?"_

"Well, I'm not. Kairi here will be fighting you today." Mew explains while speaking casually to Venus. Venus looks at Mew and says _"…I cannot trust you…" _With a nonchalant grin, Mew says to the ghostly girl "I have no problem with that mistrust considering we just met…But you do have something you can use to make sure that I won't interfere."

Nodding her head an inch, Venus whispered out _"…Rite of Singularity…" _She then lifted her left arm cloths up and pointed the spurt of gases at Kairi, saying briefly _"You…fight…" _Kairi, while nervously tapping her left fingers against her right arm, hums to herself in hesitation up until the point where Mew leans his body forward and asks "You kind of can't back down from the fight now Kairi…Do you need a few seconds to get motivated?"

Kairi looks at Mew and quickly shakes her head, putting on her serious expression before stating "I'm not nervous…It just feels uncomfortable knowing that my opponent is a little girl made of gases." Kairi then looks back at Venus, who seemed to take offense to what was being said as she summoned forth her fierce, wavy peach colored aura around her body. _"…Don't…underestimate…" _Venus states quietly.

"Just remember what I said when I fought you. She's got the ability to fight, so treat her like any other opponent." Mew advises while pulling a hand from his pockets and gesturing to the right. He then put his hands back into his pockets and turned to the left, walking off a few feet before Kairi glances at him and says in confusion "Hey wait a second, where are you going?" Mew looks back over his right shoulder and explains "I'm going to go for a little walk. It's not every day you get a chance to explore Venus freely."

Venus then looks at Mew and says _"…Your veil of wind…Remove it from her…" _Mew responds to that by saying "She'll die instantly if I do that. Trust me though, I doubt it'll give her an advantage anyways." "Well thanks for that vote of confidence. So I'm guessing you aren't going to stick around and nag me with advice like an old man?" Kairi says sarcastically while she reaches for her right pocket.

"Nah, just remember what I told you before you entered the portal and you should win. Now if you'll excuse me, I got a little journey to go on." Mew ends the conversation and then turns back to check the barren world ahead of him, and he goes forward unopposed until he is unseen within the dust storm. Meanwhile, Kairi sighs and pulls out her compressed staff from her pocket, pressing down on a button atop one of the spheres to make the staff extend back out to it's full length and girth, and she grasps the center of it and holds it so the bottom sphere is placed against the ground.

"Are you ready to go, Venus?" Kairi asked with a slight amount of hesitation, and Venus nodded her head before saying with quiet callousness _"…Disappear into the ether…" _Venus then lifted her limbs up and sent forth some green gases wrapped in spheres of her own aura at Kairi. Kairi went to swing her aura wrapped staff back and forth at those spheres, breaking each one apart as they got close to her. The gases that release from the spheres actually manage to slip through the wind veil a bit, though the wind helps break them down.

When the gases reach Kairi's body they enter through her nose, and all of a sudden she feels a slight sensation of dizziness. This leads to her vision shaking and making it harder to see Venus and her attacks. "U-Ugh…What did she do to me…?" Kairi wondered as she forced herself to keep a steady grasp on her staff and saw Venus possibly moving her right limb out to send a thick stream of gas out towards her. With her vision distorted still Kairi thinks the stream of gas is coming at her from the right and swings her staff appropriately to defend against it.

But the attack was really coming straight at her, and it was only through luck that she is able to repel it during her staff swing. By the time she repels the attack Kairi's vision returns to normal, and she is able to catch as the repelled stream of gases tries to thrust forward for another strike. This time Kairi takes the attack to her chest and is pushed back, her shoes grinding up the dry rock beneath her in the process. Kairi flinched from the attack while Venus took advantage of her position to fire off another salvo of aura spheres filled with gases.

Kairi lifted her head up and saw the approaching salvo, and decided to try things a little differently this time around by grabbing her staff by the bottom sphere and thrusting it forward, letting go of it to send it out like a spear through the air. She put some aura into the staff to put a wide blade at the front of her staff so they slice through the spheres not directly in front of it, and though the gases are released from within they disintegrate before they can make it even close to Kairi.

The staff keeps going through the air towards Venus, with Kairi pumping her fist and saying "Gotcha!" confidently up until the moment where the staff manages to push itself through the creases and cracks in Venus' cloths, bringing out a large spurt of gas behind her as it emerges from the other side. Kairi then lifts her left hand up to call her staff back to her while thinking to herself _"I thought that was a direct hit…Can I not hit her because she's made of gases?"_

When the staff was back in her hand, Kairi went for her bracelet and said "I'll just go all-out then! Beast Tamer Drive, activate!" She then pressed down on the Aurian drive and felt as her aura changed to a dark-green color and her staff split apart into it's whip form. She then condensed the whip for a moment and held it across her left palm while summoning forth an aura tiger in front of her. "Go! Strike Aurian Venus!" She commanded while whipping the ground with one swift lash of her weapon.

The aura tiger runs across the barren ground of the planet towards Venus, but the ghostly girl merely responded to the increase in Kairi's strength and the summoning of her ally by taking the gas from her left limb and shooting it out in one highly-condensed burst to push herself downward diagonally just in time to avoid the tiger leaping at her. Once she was left levitating above the ground Venus struck all four of her limbs forward and whispered _"…Bad kitty…" _

From all four of her limbs burst forth gigantic condensed streams of black gas wrapped in her aura, and as the tiger landed on the ground and swerved quickly to continue it's pursuit it was struck in the side by these four aura streams and quickly filled with the black gas wrapped inside. When Venus wrenched the aura from the sides of the tiger's body, both her and Kairi watched as the beast suddenly reacted in an unexplainable manner.

It lurched it's head forward and began hacking in gruesome pain, and the aura of the beast corroded into a stony material almost instantly from the tail to the head. This statue lasted only a few seconds due to it's hollow innards and it crumbled apart into dust that was blown away by the violent winds that suddenly returned to the planet. Venus then turned to Kairi and lifted herself off the ground with her gases, glancing at her from afar and stating _"…Your fate…" _referring to what would become of Kairi soon enough. Kairi thus became a little nervous and shook a bit as she thought _"…I can't summon another beast for a minute. What am I supposed to do now?"_

Meanwhile, as Kairi fought her battle against Venus, Mew was busy wandering the barren wastelands of the planet. He folded his arms behind his head and whistled a merry tune despite the violent dust storm and hot temperatures that could potentially threaten him if his veil was compromised even an inch. While moving across the planet he looked around and remarked "I wonder if I'll find anything…With how long this planet has been like this, anything interesting has long since been buried by the dust."

Pausing for a moment, Mew extended his right foot out and moved it along the surface of the planet left and right, hoping to find something sort of buried divot or hole. When his first attempt wasn't successful, Mew moved a few steps forward and then repeated the process, this time around succeeding as his foot sunk two inches into the dusty ground. "Oh? Now what do we have here?" Mew inquired in playful curiosity before pulling his foot back and raising his hands into the air to spread the dust into two separate walls, and is surprised to find that the hole stretches out for quite a number of feet.

He stops though when he notices something very peculiar within the dust. A few bones that had been fossilized from years of being buried lied atop a smooth, rocky surface, and Mew leaped into the hole to examine said bones closer while keeping the walls of dust held high and away from him. Kneeling before the bones, Mew was surprised when he noticed what looked like a perfect human femur mixed within them all. "…Now this is interesting…What's a human bone doing on a barren, supposedly untouched world?"

While Mew continued to solve the mystery of the bones, we head back to Kairi's battle against Venus, where she was left to wait the minute out until she could summon another beast. Venus suspected something was up when Kairi didn't attack again with another beast, and thus quickly took her gaseous limbs out and thrust them into the weak ground, burying them through until the converged below Kairi's feet. She took advantage of the confusion Kairi was experiencing to build-up gases underneath and set them off like a bubble at the very moment that Kairi notices the ground rising below her.

The gases bursting sends Kairi flying forward while pummeling her with the aura that the gases were contained in. Kairi lands on the ground a few seconds later as the leaking out gases move her way. On the side of her body, it would be hard for Kairi to retaliate against the gases so she quickly at least tried to lean on one elbow and swing her whip back and forth violently to create enough of a gale to disperse the gases.

She was so worried about the gases affecting her that she forgot about the wind veil Mew had placed around her body. She was stressing out, panicking about the situation to the point that she didn't bother to turn her head around for a few seconds as Venus gets closer to her. Once Venus whispers _"…Break down…" _Kairi widens her eyes and turns around just as Venus fires off a large plume of green gas from her body that slips through the wind veil and forces itself into Kairi's nose.

While Kairi stumbles to her feet the same effect as before takes place on her body when she came in contact with that color of gas, but this time the effect will last longer due to a higher dosage. Barely able to stand on her feet, Kairi goes tumbling back out of dizziness and sees the entire landscape shake violently before her eyes as she lands butt first on the ground, with Venus hovering above her in three separate locations due to Kairi's seizure-like hallucinations.

"…_I want to stop this…" _Venus said solemnly as Kairi continued to stumble, and while Venus spread out gas from all of her limbs and solidified them into fists she then said _"…Someday I won't have to do this again…" _Using all four fists she created, Venus rapidly thrusts them out at Kairi, starting with an uppercut to knock her up before using the fists to pummel Kairi in midair, hardening the already solidified gas with shells of aura to strengthen the power of her attacks.

"_I-It hurts to hurt others…" _Venus remarks in a slightly melancholic tone while continuing to pummel Kairi, who was kept suspended in mid-air with gases exuding behind her from the impact of each punch. Venus ended off her assault by combining all fists into one giant fist and thrusting it forward with enough force to strike Kairi and nearly break apart the wind veil as she's sent flying back, her body bounding across the arid surface of the planet in painful strides until she slams onto her back and grinds backwards to a halt.

Once she was certain she had stopped moving Kairi opens her eyelids and finds that her vision was now back to normal, for whatever good that would do her as Venus could just as easily render her incapable of fighting with another blast of green gases. Barely mustering the strength to rise to her feet, Kairi grit her teeth and had a panicked look on her face as she thought to herself _"W-Why am I going to lose again? …Oh, that's right…Because I can't hit this opponent!"_

Her thoughts bleeding with frustration, Kairi takes a moment to punch the ground before saying "Idiot…Idiot! You just had to show him up by taking on this fight…You should've known he'd be better matched against this opponent…" Lifting herself up fully, Kairi keeps a firm enough grasp on her whip as blood drips from the right side of her mouth and a scar on her left cheek. With a gritting of her teeth, Kairi looks ahead as Venus flew at her ready for another set of attacks.

But instead of fighting back, Kairi just heard Mew's advice repeat in her mind about _"Analyzing your opponents…" _twice over. She whips the ground and states in a firm whisper "What good is that advice? I know my opponent is able to use gases, but that doesn't help when I can't even hit her! Gah!" When Venus was just a few feet away, the girl took her right limb forth and sprayed out another wave of green gas as Kairi predicted she would. Refusing to become a victim of the gas again, Kairi lashed her whip out at it and spread it away with violent precision.

She then leaped back when through the green gas Venus launched out a giant fist of solid gas in an attempt to crush her. The fist instead leaves an indent in the dried ground while Kairi lands ten feet back, though with a circular plume of dust sent her way thanks to the attack. She vision is obscured for a few seconds, but it seems Venus couldn't see her either as Kairi didn't see any attacks coming during that period of time. _"Am I going to lose here? …Was I really just a fool for coming along?" _Kairi thought to herself in distress as her body started to sweat a bit.

Hateful thoughts strew through Kairi's mind, a lot of them directed towards herself, but the primary focus of them is the man who has oppressed her people all this time _"All I want to do is break that man's head off from his shoulders for all he has done! And yet I'm going to die instead to one of the 'heroes' of Aurian legend…Wait a second…" _Something then sprung to Kairi's mind amidst the hatred and self-loathing, specifically when she mentioned the word 'head'. Thinking about her battle with Venus thus far, Kairi realizes that the one part of Venus that has not been changed is her head.

"_Could it be that her head is the one part of her body I can attack?" _As Kairi had this thought, the dust spreads away by Venus blowing her gases forward in a high-pressured stream, and before Venus could launch an attack from her limbs Kairi decides to try not to give up yet and put her theory to the test. _"If I fail I'm going to die anyways, so no harm in trying…" _Kairi thought to herself before she took her whip and solidified it with a wrapping of aura, lashing it upward with a clean swing of her hand towards Venus' face.

And to Kairi's surprise, the whip makes a distinct sound as it directly hits the side of Venus' head and causes it to lurch in the opposite direction in recoil. Venus' body recoils back a bit and her gases distort at the same time. Widening her eyes happily out of pride, Kairi smiled a bit and said "I-It worked…" Her victorious moment would have to end swiftly though as Venus recovered from the blow and looked at her, stating in a moment of surprise _"…You figured it out…"_

Venus then extended out two black gas fists from her upper limbs and said _"…I know what I must do now…" _Kairi knew the danger the black gas presented to her, but confidently she uses her aura to summon forth a lioness while stating "As do I. I'm going to win!" She then commanded the lioness to sprint forward after whipping it once to increase it's size and strength. The lioness gets one of the fists of black gas thrust at it, but it manages to sprint around it and get behind Venus while the girl looks back in surprise.

But being distracted for just that moment allows Kairi to leap at Venus and thrust her whip around her head, continuing to leap over her until she lands on the ground behind her aura lioness, at which point she pulls hard on her whip and drags Venus through the air by her head, bringing her to the ground in front of her with a hard thud that brought up dust. The aura lioness then leaped over Kairi and went towards Venus as the whip was withdrawn, and with one mighty swing of it's right claw it strikes Venus' face and knocks her into the air while three slash marks of light appear briefly.

The gases around Venus' body distort a lot, with her head doing the same for a moment as she descends from the sky and plops onto the ground front first before the aura lioness. Kairi walks beside the beast and looks down at Venus, who slowly lifts her head up and struggles to bring her upper limbs up to release even a puff of gas. Lying down on the ground in a pitiful manner, Venus watches as the aura lioness raises it's claw up, waiting for Kairi's command to end the girl's life. _"…Alive or dead…I'll be done with this body either way soon…" _Was all Venus said in the face of Kairi's decision, and she laid her face down against the ground to await the end result.

Kairi, who was so hellbent before on eliminating who she deemed to be traitors, felt the slightest bit of hesitation upon seeing Venus' current situation. Her left hand was raised to prepare the command for the final blow, but it began to quiver as the hesitation grew stronger. Whether or not Venus was a traitor, Kairi could just not bring herself to kill this little girl. "…Damn it all, and I called him stupid earlier…" Kairi said, admitting that Mew had a point by snapping her fingers to dispel her aura beast.

She then laid a hand on her bracelet to shut off her Beast Tamer drive, and then she lets out a tired sigh as Venus looks at her in confusion and says _"You won't…kill me?" _Kairi looks away from Venus and says "It's complicated, ok? Besides, all I had to do was defeat you…A-And you weren't really doing anything villainous." Venus raised her ghastly eyebrow a bit but didn't get to say anything else before Mew suddenly called to the two of them, casually proclaiming "I see you two have finished your battle!"

Kairi looked to the left and Venus did so the right before Mew ran over to them while holding one hand behind his back, something that Kairi looked at for a moment but instead started by mentioning tiredly "Y-Yeah…I managed to pull things off. All by myself…" Kairi looked away while blushing, and Mew smiled at her and wagged a finger out while mentioning "You had to use my advice, didn't you?"

"N-N-No! I figured out my own battle plan and won, Mew." Kairi insisted, and Mew said to her "I'll take your stuttering response for now and leave it at that. Congratulations on your victory Kairi, I knew you could do it." While turning her head back a bit to look at Mew, Kairi smiled slightly and said "T-Thanks…"

"Anyways, hate to keep the celebration short with you Kairi, but there's something I want to talk to Venus about real quick before we go back." Mew said before turning to Venus, who slowly lifted herself off the ground, using small spurts of gas to keep herself afloat before looking at Mew and saying _"…What is it…?" _"You're working for Gravitus because of what happened to you and the rest of the people that once lived on this planet, aren't you?" Mew asked while pulling his arm out from behind his back to reveal the femur bone from earlier in his grasp.

As Mew flips the bone twice from his grasp, Venus and Kairi both shared equal surprise at that discovery. "W-Where did you…?" Kairi whispered out while leaning forward to get a closer look at the bone, and Venus murmured _"…So that's what you were doing…" _While spinning the bone on his pointer finger, Mew stated calmly "I knew something was up when I sensed life energy coming from your head despite you not having flesh. So I decided to investigate the planet for anything else that could confirm that something disastrous happened here, and sure enough I found a bunch of buried bones."

Clasping his hand around the bone softly, Mew then said with an empathetic expression "But that's as far as I can go with this information…Unless you're willing to tell me the whole story." Venus frowned a bit and let out a sigh, but then explained slowly and quietly _"…Long ago…Venus was inhabited by a colony of humans from a far away Earth…Mommy and daddy lived with me here, and everything was happy and bright…I loved smelling flowers every day and swimming in the waters…But we weren't too dependant on technology after our move, so no one had any idea about what was coming…"_

Venus' gaseous head grimaced for a moment in pain, and Kairi curiously asked "…What came to your world?" _"…It was a storm of cosmic radiation…It covered the planet and brought death to everything. Mommy and daddy…all my friends…and all plant life…Venus became the planet you see now in just one day…But instead of killing me the radiation did something far worse…It turn me into a consciousness within the planet's gases and dust, and all I could do was blow from place to place and see nothing but the bones of everyone I knew on the ground for many years…"_

"And then someone offered their help, didn't they?" Mew inquired, and Venus nodded her head but mentioned _"It was not Gravitus…At least not at first…He was a mythical man who wrapped my consciousness in his magical cloths and allowed me to move on my own for the first time…But he could not restore my flesh, and instead made me the Aurian of this planet…Gravitus came later on, and offered me a chance to have my body back if I served him…It has been a long time since, but I know his efforts are getting him close…"_

"How do you know that for sure?" Mew asked, and Venus said _"…I…I can't tell you everything…But I keep in touch with the person who's helping me out…" _Finding that remark intriguing, Mew folded his arms together and said "That's basically the same thing Mercury told us…Interesting, so one of the later Planetary Aurians must be a scientific genius if she can reverse magic and cosmic radiation…"

"…_Mmm…" _Venus moaned a bit in distress, and at that point Mew gently laid the bone on the ground and kneeled in front of Venus, giving her a bright and brimming smile as he admits to her "Venus, you've been a brave and patient girl all these years. I can't imagine anyone else your age going through this with their sanity still intact. Something really strong must be motivating you to press on…"

Venus admitted in a melancholy tone of voice at first _"…Mommy and daddy…I know they are never going to come back, but they always told me to be strong…Someday…I want to be able to touch a flower again…and swim in a body of water…and soak in the rays of the sun unharmed…" _Raising his right hand up and moving it towards the extension of gas from Venus' right limb, Mew continues to smile and say "Well I can't do it for you entirely, but this should suffice as a reminder of what a beautiful world is like…"

Suddenly, Mew uses his powers to perform a miracle, as he takes the gases from Venus' right limb and wraps them in a veil of wind for protection while transforming the gases into a small, human hand. Kairi was absolutely left agape in awe at what she saw, and Venus could not speak a single word as her clothed body shivered. Mew looks her in the face and asks "Can you feel the cold air surrounding your hand?" Venus, after looking surprised for a few seconds, nodded her gaseous head twice happily. Mew then put his pointer finger and thumb together and with a flick of the wrist gave birth to a tulip that he hands off to Venus' temporary flesh hand.

Venus shook some more, and Mew gently helped wrap Venus' fingers around the tulip to make sure it the flower wouldn't escape her grasp while saying "There you go. Now…What is your real name, little girl? Cause I know you weren't name Venus at birth, that'd be way too much of a coincidence…" Venus, lifting her head up and trying her hardest to smile with the way her head was formed, said to Mew happily _"…M-My name is Maria…Thank you for showing me this kindness mister Mew…" _

"Maria…What a beautiful name. Your hand is only temporary sadly, and I wish I could fully restore your body…But I think this is a good reward for all your patience, and it gives you something to look forward to when your ally completes their work." Mew said while beginning to stand back upright, and Venus asked of him _"…Will you see me again?" _Mew nodded his head and said "Sure thing. Unfortunately, we're going to have to go back and defeat the rest of your allies to get to Gravitus. But I promise I won't rough up the person who's working on restoring your body."

"…_And Ms. Kairi?" _Venus inquired, and with a glance towards Kairi Mew admitted "Eh, she's coming along fine. Your savior is in good hands, Maria." With a wave of his hand afterwards as Kairi looked at him in confusion, Mew said "But we got to get going now. Catch you later." He then turned towards the direction of the portal and began walking towards it, with Kairi catching up to him after looking at the merry Venus one last time.

Kairi then immediately said to Mew "You were watching the end of my battle, weren't you?" Mew casually remarked "My return to the scene was a bit too convenient, wouldn't you say? Like I said before, I'll take your stuttering response for now and leave it at that. We got seven more Planetary Aurians to defeat still, and we need to keep trying our best." Mew then leaped through the portal despite Kairi extending a hand out and saying "Wait!" After a momentary pause she said "…Never mind…" and then leaped through the portal after him.

_Next Time: Learning Of One Another_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The First Respite: What We Like**

"…_Be careful around your younger sister. You don't want to wake her up too much." Auris says in a tender voice to another person, and the a pair of eyelids creak open slowly to see what was going on in front of her. The light attached to the ceiling fuzzes her vision a bit, but when she is able to see things clearly the two things the person notices are the stars painted onto her ceiling and a little girl with short blonde hair hovering above her with a very eager smile on her face and a striped blue-white shirt and tiny beige pants on her body._

"_Hi little sis! I'm your older sister, Shina! Nice to meet you!" The little girl said enthusiastically, and Auris glanced down at Shina and said after a sigh "It's not the first time you've seen your little sister, Shina." Shina lifted her head up and said "I know mom! But it IS the first time she'll be able to remember that I was looking at her, right?" _

"_Yeah, I suppose she has reached that age…It feels like just yesterday I gave birth to her, and even a shorter amount of time since I did so for you, Shina." Auris states while looking up and remembering things fondly. Shina then looks back down at her little sister and says while closing her eyes "So your name is Kairi? Well Kairi, I guess soon you'll be able to walk and talk on your own. When you do, you'll get to play with me a lot! There's so much fun we can have around here in our house!"_

_Shina then lifted her head up and raised her right hand up with all fingers extended, touching each one once as she listed some of the things they could do "There's board games, running, video games, TV, books, and so, so much more!" She then flung her hands up happily while giving her little sister a brimming smile. "…Don't overwhelm her too much Shina. You're going to break her before she even makes it to her fifth birthday." Auris advises._

"_Awww mom, if she's survived three years she can survive another two having nothing but fun." Shina insisted happily while pumping her fists up before her. She then looked back at Kairi and said "That's your mommy, Kairi. She's a bit overprotective, but you get used to it eventually." After a slight coo from the young Kairi, she raised her hands up slightly and murmured out "Mommy…Shina…" _

_Shina turned her head to Auris and said "Mommy! She said her first words!" Auris looked proudly at Kairi and said with a motherly smile "That's wonderful. And she sounded so happy to say them too…" Shina then looked back down at Kairi and said "You're going to be a happy child, aren't you? Don't worry if you don't feel happy at times, that's what big sisters like me are for!" With that, young Kairi began giggling happily._

"_Heheh, you like me a lot already, don't you Kairi? Kairi…Kairi…" _"Kairi? Hey, Kairi?" The memories of the past end for Kairi as Mew addresses her current, almost vegetative state as her and Mew currently stand back in Venus' pyramid chamber. With a snap of his fingers before Kairi's face, Mew leans forward and looks into her eyes before she blinks and lets out a groggy "H-Huh?" As though she wasn't fully aware of how deep into her memories she was.

She has a wide-eyed expression towards Mew for a few seconds as the boy pulls back on his body and inquired "You alright? You were out for about five minutes." Kairi shook her head and said "I-It's nothing. I was just thinking about some things." After Kairi put on a firm expression Mew folded his arms together, smirked with a chuckle and said "Saying 'It's nothing' is not going to convince me that something isn't up…But if you don't feel comfortable talking about it I won't say anything else."

"I'd definitely appreciate that." Kairi said bluntly, though there was a hint of embarrassment in her voice due to her spacing out like that in front of Mew. With a smile Mew said "Anyways, before you blanked out there I was saying that it was time to take a break since we've already beaten two of the Planetary Aurians." Kairi looked at Mew with a surprised expression and said confidently "A break? Please, we can keep going easily!"

Mew suddenly then sat on the ground in a criss-cross position and laid his hands atop his kneecaps, forcing out a yawn before explaining "Hey if you want to keep going be my guest, but I used up a lot of energy temporarily restoring Venus' hand and keeping that wind veil up around you." Kairi paused for a moment, folded her arms against her chest, and glared at Mew before stating snidely "You're lying to me, aren't you?" "Maaaaaaybe." Mew slyly stated with a smile on his face.

After Kairi raised her right eyebrow for a few seconds, Mew patted the ground down in front of him, and Kairi groaned before relenting and saying "Fiiine. We're not going to get anywhere until you get off your lazy ass anyways, so I might as well take a break too." She then promptly fell onto her butt and crossed her legs while looking away from Mew. Mew went to fix her averting glare by holding his right hand out in front of his chest and asking "Want anything to drink?"

"Drink? What, did you manage to drag a juice along with you?" Kairi inquired while glancing over at him, and Mew shook his head while explaining "No no no, I didn't grab anything from your house. Even if I did my battle with Mercury would've broken the bottle. I'm saying I'll blend you up a drink, basically." Suspect of that claim, Kairi gave a half-assed grin and said "Oh really? I know you didn't sneak a blender with you, so what are you going to do, make one out of raw materials?"

"If I had the stuff around to do so I'd easily build a blender, but since that's not an option I'll just have to use the raw elements gifted to me." Mew replied nonchalantly, and Kairi continued to be suspicious yet somewhat curious of what Mew was claiming as she said "…Go on…" "First off I need to know what type of juice you want." Mew said while stretching his left hand out towards the ground.

"Hmmm…Give me a juice with raspberries, lemon, and maybe some kiwi." Kairi says, and then watched as Mew suddenly converted the floor beside him into a large patch of enriched soil. "That's an interesting order, but I shouldn't have too much of a problem with that." He then fired off three sets of seeds into the soil from his palm, followed by him leaning his body forward and hovering his hand above the soil to use the tips of his fingers as miniature hoses to sprinkle water across all the buried seeds.

Once that was done he went back to his original position and snapped his fingers, which caused the three sets of seeds to rapidly bloom and grow out of the ground, and they matured into fully grown plants in a matter of seconds. Kairi was rather shocked at how quickly the plants appeared before her, but at the same time she still didn't know just how these fruits were going to become a juice. "Now watch and be amazed." Mew said as though to answer Kairi's curiosity, and with his mind he plucked three kiwis, twenty raspberries, and two lemons from their positions and brought them in front of his body.

He summoned his sword horizontally in the air and cut into the rind of the kiwis and slice the lemons in half, putting his sword away immediately before using his mind to slowly peel apart the kiwis and levitate the lemon halves in the air. Once he has prepared all the fruit, he holds both his hands out and states "First we need a bit of water…" which he squirts out of his palms and holds in a cylindrical form for a few seconds.

He then adds the fruits to the water and inquires "If you want, I can make it into a smoothie by adding some ice." Kairi shook her head and requested "Just a juice will do." With an understanding nod of his head Mew then said "Alright, now we take the water and fruits and blend them together. To do this, we need some that can provide a rotation and chop up the fruit simultaneously."

With a gesture of his fingers towards the gathered materials, Mew creates a miniature tornado around them that rapidly blends together everything with it's sharp wind blades. The raspberries provided the mixture with a dark red, somewhat grainy appearance. "And after thirty seconds…A perfectly blended juice is born!" Mew says in a bombastic manner as the tornado stops spinning, leaving plenty of the juice floating in mid-air as Kairi looks at and asks "Ok, what about the-"

Mew holds his focus on the juice with one hand while extending his other hand out and lifting it slowly up to form a perfect looking glass from the ground that pops up and is caught into Mew's grasp, and he quickly puts it below the juice and pours it in without hesitation. Kairi just shuts up immediately at that point as Mew holds the glass out and remarks "For you, as requested." "Hmmm…Ok fine, I guess I'm impressed." Kairi mumbled out before taking the glass from Mew's glass.

She puts the drink to her mouth and takes a sip quickly while closing her eyelids as Mew puts the rest of the juice into his own drink glass. Giving Kairi a curious glance as she gulps down the juice and pulls the glass from her face, Mew waits for the moment where she opens her eyelids and says while holding back her surprise "I-It's good…" "I'd hope so. It's made from fresh fruit, pure water, and a little bit of a winter breeze to keep it cold but not too cold." Mew explained happily as Kairi took yet another drink of the juice without hesitation.

"Mmm…" Kairi hummed in delight, and Mew asked her since the topic was prime for the taking "So you like sweet and sour drinks?" Kairi lowered her glass with one hand and held it off to the side, replying firmly "Yeah, of course I do. What, are you surprised?"

"Not at all. They say a person's tastes reflect the type of person they are…Your favorite type of juice makes sense considering how you're sometimes sour, but at other times surprisingly sweet." Mew states in an analytical manner, to which Kairi glares at him in annoyance and remarks "Oh, so this is a Judgment Juice. Fine then smart guy, then I guess you can have your sour moments considering you're drinking this very same juice."

Kairi's accusation and pointed finger is responded to by Mew leaning down to take a sip of his juice and saying without looking at her "Not at all. It'd just be a waste to not have some of this juice myself. I never would've thought to combine these three fruits together." Kairi then growled internally at Mew's nonchalance response before she instead asked him "Ok then, what type of juices DO you like then?"

"Whatever floats my boat at any given time. I'm not particularly picky." Mew replies, and Kairi accuses him right away with "Oh that's a cop-out answer and you KNOW it." With a smile as he lifts his head up, Mew says to her "Or perhaps you didn't word the question right. After all, something like that allows me to easily give a broad answer instead of a singular one."

Frustrated at Mew for what she deemed as mockery, Kairi scowled for a moment before looking down at her glass and having a mischievous smile on her face and thinking _"If I can't slap or punch you…Then lets try THIS!" _She then thrust her right arm out and tried to toss the rest of the juice out of the glass right at Mew's face, but it only flies halfway through the air before Mew looks up and stops the juice with but a thought. He looked bothered at first, but instead revealed that he was not offended as he smiled and said "If you're done with the juice, just put the glass down, ok?"

Kairi blinked a couple times in irritation before her arrogance goes away, and she kept her glass out while pouting and glancing off to the side as she stated "I-It was just a slip of the hand…" Mew let her have that excuse as he put the juice back in her glass, and after she puts it onto the ground to the right of her she folds her arms and continues to pout in embarrassment. Mew said to her after lifting his head back and taking a large drink of juice "Honestly though, I was being a bit of a jerk when I said that."

He then let out a joyous gasp as the juice went down his throat, and after placing the glass down he gestures his hand forward while laying his elbows on his knees and says "I wasn't, however, lying about my answer. With my powers, you tend to get very experimental, especially with fruits and vegetables. I've tried out a bunch of different combinations of food both normally and in juices. Have you ever eaten a pomegranate and raspberry together? Or some grapes and blueberries? How about a strawberry and a piece of cheese? The combina-"

"…That last one was a Ratatouille reference…" Kairi whispered suddenly while briefly glancing at Mew, and the boy managed to hear her clear enough to stop what he was saying and say with a curious smile and tilt of his head "I beg your pardon? Did I hear that right?" Flustered by the fact that she was caught, Kairi's face becomes redder before she mumbled out in a slightly louder tone of voice "…I-It was a Ratatouille reference you made…"

"You watched that movie? Heh, doesn't seem like something for your age." Mew said with a bit of nonchalant joking in his voice, and Kairi suddenly turned her head to face him and fervently defended herself by stating "Those movies are for people of all ages! B-Besides, I used to be a kid at some point, just like you!" Mew then straightened his posture upright and waves his hands in front of his body, saying in a barely apologetic tone "My apologies, I just assumed you've been a teenager your entire life."

Mew chuckled at his own remark, but Kairi's unamused expression made him slowly stop that until there was an awkward silence between the two of them. "Yeeaaah…" Mew broke the silence while glancing to the right, only to snap his head back into position and say as Kairi went back to looking off to the side "…If I've upset you in any way, you're welcome to call me out on it." "…Are you actually taking this whole thing seriously?" Kairi then asked in a solemn tone of voice.

"Hmm?" Mew hummed in confusion before Kairi continued on with "You held a conversation with Mercury, you nonchalantly left me to fight Venus, and now you're just having us take a break here in enemy controlled territory…Are you unafraid of anything, or are you just stupid?" Kairi's blunt accusation is followed by her turning to Mew and giving him a firm glare as she clearly expected a serious response.

Mew, unsurprisingly, respected her wishes and closed his eyelids before stating "Kairi, I was watching your battle with Venus enough to know that you were getting tense. That's part of the reason I decided to implement a break period every two Planetary Aurians we defeat, to give you a chance to relax yourself without any enemy interference." Kairi went silent for a few seconds before asking "Part of the reason…?"

"Well yeah. When you sit down and relax like this, it's a good way to get to know one another. So far I've learned the type of juice you like and one of the movies you've watched, while you've learned that I'm experimental with my foods and that I like to be lax. Not bad for just a few minutes of resting, wouldn't you say?" Mew's inquiry has him look up at Kairi, who still wore a somewhat serious expression before she pointed out "…You didn't really answer my question earlier."

Nodding his head in agreement of that, Mew thus granted her request and explained "When you don't take the time to relax yourself, you can get stressed out easily. Take my advice well here Kairi, you can make some really stupid mistakes if you just battle non-stop and give yourself no downtime. Don't let the enemy get to you either…That's a one way ticket to defeat, possibly even death." Kairi then lowers her eyebrows a bit and says "…So basically…You're doing this for my own good?"

"Well the relaxation part anyways. Learning about each other does the both of us a lot of good." Mew replies with a smile as he tips his juice glass towards Kairi. "…Hmmm…" Kairi was finding herself feeling a bit surprised by what Mew was doing here, and with a little sigh beforehand she unfolds her arms and leans back while pressing her hands against the ground to act as support for herself. Her breasts perked out a bit with the way she was postured, but she sat back up quickly after noticing that detail.

"Hehe…Anyways Kairi, do you feel like talking a bit about yourself a little more?" Mew inquired nonchalantly. "Only if you let me ask something about you first." Kairi replies while continuing to lay her hands against the ground. "Fair enough bargain. Say whatever you want." Mew said before emptying his glass of juice with one more drink.

"Hmmm…Ok, lets start with something simple. What's your favorite type of movie?" Kairi asked while smiling in intrigue. Mew leaned back a bit and gave that question a lot of thought, taking him about ten seconds of humming to himself before he looked at Kairi and said "Anything that can blend both action and comedy together while still knowing when to have it's inflective moments that make you the watcher think about things."

"…Huh, can't say I'm surprised by that." Kairi said in a rather dry tone of voice, and Mew stated "I'm a little predictable with my tastes in movies, sorry. But what about you? What's your favorite kind of movies?" Kairi grinned brightly and leaned forward, holding her hands against the ground while stating with a bit of eerie, prolonged joy "Horror movies!"

Mew paused for a moment, raising a hand up in abject disbelief before he pointed a finger at Kairi and asked "…You're not just saying that to be vastly different than me, are you?" Kairi grinned slyly and said "What's the matter, do horror movies make you squirm?" Mew shook his head and replied with the utmost nonchalance "Of course not. I'm just curious to hear why you like horror movies."

"Because those movies are so unrestrained. Monsters get brutally slaughtered, zombies are mowed down like crazy, there's always high stakes for the entire cast, and it's easy to get your heart pumping watching them!" Kairi was incredibly enthusiastic in explaining herself, leading to Mew looking at her and admitting "…You just really like violence, don't you?"

Kairi calmed down a bit and said "U-Umm…Yeah, is there really anything wrong with that?" Mew scratched the side of his head and whispered to himself "This explains quite a lot honestly…" "What was that?" Kairi remarked bluntly, causing Mew to quickly lift his head up and state with a slight stutter "S-So now that we've talked about movies for a moment, how about video games?"

"…I don't play video games though." Kairi quickly insisted while a slight bit of red appeared in her cheeks. Mew wasn't going to have any of that though as he waved a pointer finger out and stated "You aren't fooling me. You DID make a Pokemon reference back when we first met." "S-So what? I just knew enough to make the reference. I haven't actually played the games." Kairi stated with a stutter of embarrassment in her voice.

Mew said "When I was in your house, I detected the electromagnetic frequency of multiple video game systems. Your mom definitely didn't strike me as the type of person to play video games, so…" He glared mischievously at Kairi in expectation for a response, and Kairi's blush increased further as she continued to deny things with "M-Mom does play them sometimes. You can't prove that I do!" Mew then quickly countered her denial by explaining further "And I detected the specific plastics used for video game cases inside of your closet area…Probably over three hundred of them in fact. And that's not even getting into cartridges and-"

"OK FINE! I'm a gamer! You got it out of me! Don't think any less of me for this though or you're going on the top of my shit-list." Kairi exclaimed while grabbing the sides of her head in intense frustration and pulling somewhat at her hair. Laughing a bit in surprise, Mew did not mock Kairi for her reveal and instead gestured out with his right hand and admitted "Why would I think any less of you for being a gamer?"

"…I-I don't know honestly." Kairi said after calming herself down a bit and embarrassingly moving her hands away from her hair. "Heh, sounds to me like you are just really hesitant about revealing stuff about yourself that takes away from the warrior's image you have going." Mew theorized calmly, but Kairi said to him bluntly in response "Hmph, I'm not hesitant! I can prove it to you! Ask me anything else!"

"Ok, if you insist. Have you ever played with toys that are considered girly? I'm talking dolls, ponies, etc." Mew asked with a gesture out. Kairi immediately went into a blushing state and replied "Y-Y-Yes! I did play with dolls and ponies when I was younger! But I'm way too old for them now!" Mew didn't have any objections with that response, but at least pointed out to Kairi "Can't say you're lying on that part. I didn't detect anything like that in your house."

"O-Of course I'm not!" Kairi said with a stutter in her voice before realizing something rather odd and stating with a glare "Heeeeey wait a second…Why were you searching for stuff like that in the first place?" Mew shrugged his shoulders and stated honestly "Eh, I just wanted to see what type of things you were interested in. Don't worry, I promise I didn't snoop on what type of clothes you wear."

"…You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Kairi dryly commented, and Mew told her while looking a bit guilty for his remark "You're not too far off with that assessment, really. Fine, as compensation for bothering you, you can ask me any question you want." Kairi grinned mischievously at that prospect and then leaned forward, asking Mew quickly "Have YOU ever enjoyed stuff that's considered girly? And I'm not just talking toys, I mean shows, movies, etc."

"Huh, not a very creative question. I was expecting something a little more personal…" Mew said while rubbing his chin and expressing disappointment in a sigh, but Kairi just tells him bluntly "Answer the friggin' question already, quit stalling." "I'm not stalling, I'm expressing disappointment, those are two entirely different things." Mew states as he draws his hand away from his chin and prepares his response in his mind.

"Sure, I can say I've enjoyed some things that are considered girly. I've watched chick flicks, done a bit of knitting for my bedding, and I do my own cooking. But I'm not ashamed to admit any of that. I'd like to think I'm varied in my tastes for not conforming to what my gender is supposed to do." Mew explains, and Kairi glared at him and said "…You know, that's not a stupid answer. Congratulations." Mew bowed forward and said cheerfully "I'm glad I have met your expectations."

He then began to lift himself up off the ground and remarked "Alright, I think that's good enough though for conversation. We'll pick this back up after we take care of another two Planetary Aurians." Kairi blinked a couple times in surprise and stated "Didn't think you'd end it this suddenly. What, you afraid of me asking more personal questions now?" As Kairi stood upright Mew said to her "Nah, I've just gotten back all my used up energy, so I figured there's no point is sitting around anymore."

"Hah, and I had a pretty great question lined up for you." Kairi said with a sneer on her face, to which Mew replied to as he turned around to face the staircase ahead of him "Then save it for the next session. We got work to do now." "Assuming you don't waste time conversing with the enemy." Kairi says, to which Mew just nonchalantly shrugs in response to before he strolls towards the staircase, Kairi following him after folding her arms against her chest and putting on a neutral expression.

_Next Time: The Guardian_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: A Guardian…And A Friend?**

With the break over with in the previous chamber, Mew and Kairi didn't really have much reason to say anything as they climb the staircase to the third chamber. It wasn't until Mew hummed loudly in intrigue that Kairi glanced at him and said "What's on your mind now?" Mew was wiggling his fingers together in front of his chest while smiling brightly outside of Kairi's line of sight, stating to match his intrigue "The next Planetary Aurian is going to be Earth's. I'm really interested to see what they are like."

"Hmmm…I wish I could give you an answer." Kairi said, sounding a bit bothered by her inability to answer the question. Mew glances back at her and asks "Wouldn't a Planetary Aurian that lives on the same planet as the rest of the Aurians stay in contact with you guys?" Look down with a flush of confidence from her demeanor, Kairi stutters out a response of "I-I really don't know what to believe right now. I was always told that the Planetary Aurians were a myth, you know that by now…"

"Who told you that they were myths?" Mew inquired, suspecting an answer already before Kairi looked at him and said "Mom did when I was much younger. Why do you ask?" Mew faced forward and went silent for a few seconds before gesturing his right hand out and stating "Never mind, I thought there'd be more to it than that. Back to the subject of Aurian Earth though, what type of power do you think he'll have with his aura?"

"How would I be able to guess that? I mean Mercury and Venus could be easy to figure out because of the nature of their planets…But Earth is such a varied planet from what I've read in the history books that it's hard to imagine what his aura would be capable of." Kairi said, and Mew folded his arms behind his head and remarked "I suppose you're right. He could control anything with his aura…You heard what Mercury said about his Aurian Drive becoming one with him over the years, right?"

"Ummm, yeah, barely. What about it?" Kairi wondered with a bit of annoyance in her voice as she could not gauge Mew's odd intentions, and Mew thus asked her "What's your knowledge regarding the Aurian Drives? Your mother said they were split into five-tiers of power, but that's all I got so far minus what I've watched you, Mercury and Venus do." "Knowledge of Aurian Drives kept within the library is unknown to anyone besides my mother and Gravitus…The most of I know is that there are duplicates of the lower three tiers of Aurian Drives but only one-of-a-kind for the two highest tiers." Kairi replied.

"…Hmmm, as interesting as that is, I can't really use that to gauge Earth's powers." Mew said nonchalantly as they reached the end of their ascension to the next floor. "Why are you so concerned with figuring that out now?" Kairi inquired, and Mew quickly told her "Cause I get the feeling Aurian Earth is going to be incredibly strong, and I could use whatever information I can get before I fight him."

The conversation drops right there as Mew takes a look at the chamber of Aurian Earth. Unlike the previous two, this chamber did not contain a portal to another location, and because of that it was much more wide-open in scale. There was plenty of grass spread across the floor of the chamber, with only a winding path of multicolored stones offering differentiation in how it looked. Lined up across the walls were hundreds upon hundreds of different flowers, all of them fully bloomed and bright in how they looked. Finally there were the rows upon rows of cherry blossom trees that reached many stories off the ground, brightening the chamber with a warm and natural pink glow as the petals slowly drop down.

Sniffing the pure as can be air, Mew remarked while stretching his arms out "I don't know whether to continue on or just fall back onto the grass to relax." Kairi immediately glared at him and said with a scowl "We JUST got done with a break, so you're going to pick the first option." "Oh admit it, you'd lay down in the grass here if we had the time to." Mew said nonchalantly in response to that.

Widening her eyes a moment, Kairi stutters out "I-I-I guess so…I'm surprised Aurian Earth's chamber is so vibrant though." As Kairi looks around the room to take in all the sights, her and Mew advance along the stone path, with Mew commenting "I don't think I've seen some of these flowers before. I even get the feeling a couple of them aren't from the planet Earth." It only takes a minute of steady strolling through the garden before the two come across a different sight. Placed in front of the staircase is a large, red wood Japanese pagoda with two torches lit beside the sliding paper door.

But the more prominent sight was the man sitting at the lip of the small staircase. He was very muscular and had leaf-green colored skin, and he had black hair tied into a samurai's ponytail. He wore a dirt-brown colored set of standard samurai armor with blue-green striped baggy samurai pants but seemed be devoid of any protection around his hands, both of which were currently grabbing onto his kneecaps as he was kneeled down. His rugged face was built like a middle-aged man, with slight wrinkling near his eyes and well-defined cheek bones. He has had a tiny bit of a beard and his eyelids were shut calmly, completing the meditative posture he had that made him look as motionless as a statue.

Mew raised his right hand up and waved it at the man despite knowing he wouldn't see it, stating in a polite but loud enough tone for the man to hear him "Hello. You must be Aurian Earth, correct?" The man does not flinch much as he moves his lips and stated calmly to Mew with a slight Japanese accent in his voice "And you are the new Elemental Overlord. For you to make it here to my garden means you have bested two of my allies thus far…"

As the person speaks, Kairi suddenly flinched in surprise and glanced around Mew's body at the man, as though said person was familiar to her. Mew gestured his right hand out and said "Well I can only take credit for Mercury's defeat. Kairi here defeated Venus." The mention of Kairi's name caused Earth to grimace for a moment, stating in a puzzled tone "…Kairi? …You do not mean Kairi Aurora, do you?"

To confirm what Mew had said, Earth slowly creaks his eyelids open and glanced past Mew with his dark-blue eyes to look right at Kairi. Kairi stepped out beside Mew and with a very bothered expression on her face she stated "G-Gabriel? What are you doing here?" Earth, after a moment's hesitation followed by a glare towards Mew, said in a very perturbed tone "…I feel I should be asking you that, Lady Kairi. What is the meaning of this, Elemental Overlord?"

Mew, glancing over at Kairi and then back at Earth/Gabriel a few times, holds his gaze towards Earth while gesturing out to Kairi as he says "You two know each other?" Kairi nods her head and replies "…Gabriel is an old friend of the family's. He'd visit us quite often at our house and have dinner with us, spending time with me so much he was almost like a father…And you're telling me that HE'S Aurian Earth? B-But that's impossible…If he lived with us the whole time, how could none of us have known that he was a Planetary Aurian?"

Kairi was visibly conflicted by all that was going on, as questions raced through her head that could not be answered. Mew, on the other hand, sighed and closed his eyelids, whispering to himself in a flustered tone "This just confirms my earlier suspicions." Earth lifted his head up slightly and stated "…I wish for your forgiveness, Lady Kairi…And I do not blame you if you wish to hate me for not telling you the truth all these years."

Kairi immediately lashed out at Earth with her right fist clenched in rage, telling him bluntly "But if you're a Planetary Aurian, that means you've been loyal to Gravitus this whole time! Why?! Why would you betray your people and work for that monster?! Tell me Gabriel, TELL ME!" Earth hung his head a bit in shame, stating to Kairi with the utmost honesty "I am sorry…But my true loyalty lies only towards one, and therefore I cannot answer. I damn myself with this shame, but not as much as I damn you, Elemental Overlord, for bringing the truth out like this."

"…Excuse me?" Mew put on a puzzled expression and sounded a bit offended that he was being accused of something by Earth. The man explained himself by stating "Do you not realize what you have done by bringing her here?" "No, explain to me what I've possibly done wrong here." Mew firmly stated while folding his arms together and looking a bit peeved.

Earth suddenly extended his arms out past his legs and used them to push himself up, slowing rising to his feet while answering Mew with "Lord Gravitus gave us Planetary Aurians two orders when it came to the Sages' Pyramid…One, to kill anyone who dares to try and oppose Lord Gravitus. And two…" He then stands upright and clasps his arms together against the steel plating of his chest, looking down upon Mew with a bothered look in his eyes as he finished stating "We are to incapacitate and capture the children of Sage Auris if they enter the pyramid."

Kairi looks at Earth and tells him while clenching her hand close to her chest "I won't let you capture me Gabriel!" "I wished not to do such a thing, Lady Kairi…But I have no choice now. Lord Gravitus' orders are absolute for the Planetary Aurians now. All I wish to know is why exactly you chose to make this foolish mistake, Elemental Overlord." Earth stated, starting out with regret before calmly showing anger towards Mew. Mew said to him while keeping his arms folded "Kairi has the right to face Gravitus herself. I'm just teaching her the things necessary to fight well."

"You are putting her…No, you're putting the lives of all my people at risk by going through with this madness." Earth stated, and Mew responded by telling him "Her life won't be at risk if you just let us pass you by. If you're truly her friend and father figure, then even Gravitus' absolute rules should not stop you." "Your ignorance is not welcome here, Elemental Overlord. You know nothing of what Lord Gravitus is capable of. I will not budge from this spot to let you both pass." Earth replied immediately and firmly.

"…Then I guess we must fight." Mew said while beginning to hold his right hand out, but Kairi suddenly grabs him by the upper part of his arm and surprised him by standing defiantly in front of his body and looking him straight in the eyes, stating while keeping a hold on his arm "Don't fight him. I'll do it myself. It makes more sense for me to do so." She was very insistent to the point of begging, but her wishes would not be answered as Earth stated "I refuse to fight you, Lady Kairi. No, I am invoking the Rite of Singularity and choosing you as my opponent, Elemental Overlord."

With Earth pushing a hand forward and pointing straight at Mew, Kairi turns her head over her shoulder and states "No! I said I will fight you!" "It's too late, regardless of whether there was the possibility that I would accept your wishes, Lady Kairi. The contract was made the very moment I spoke the three words." Earth replied firmly, and Kairi turned around and waved her right arm before exclaiming tearfully "Cut this out! You two don't need to fight! Gabriel, I know you're a reasonable man, stop this nonsense at once!"

"…I wish you would stop saying my real name, Lady Kairi." Earth said while closing his eyelids and grimacing in pain. He then swerved his right hip forward a bit to reveal the bronze hilt attached to his waist and began to reach for the handle of his weapon, stating as he does so "As I stand in this temple, defying your advance on this pagoda, I am Aurian Earth…Not your ally, but your enemy!" The words leave a bitter feeling in Kairi's mind, and she was about five seconds away from making a huge mistake as her hands tensed up into fists and her body quivers in anger.

Mew lays a hand on her shoulder and says "Kairi, just accept things for as they are right now. If you hit him, you'll break the rules of the contract and die." He was calm in his words, and they were enough to make Kairi pause and look back at him with a couple tiny teardrops visible in her eyes. Mew paid attention to this little detail and looked up at Earth, asking him politely "Earth, would you be ok with Kairi staying inside of your pagoda while we fight? I think it's best she not watch us battle."

"…Hmmm…" Earth hummed to himself in thought while Kairi forcefully threw Mew's grasp off of her shoulder as she stepped back, stating in a disbelieving tone "I'm not going to hide away while you two fight! You're an idiot for thinking that!" "Then be collateral we have to worry about during our battle. That's your decision to make, Kairi." Mew said quietly and nonchalantly while folding his arms against his chest. For a few moments, Kairi grit her teeth in a scowl and lifted her hand up ready to slap Mew across the face for his attitude, but then the realization that he had a point hit her hard through all of her doubts and made her stop what she was about to do.

Clenching her open hand into a fist, Kairi pouted and turned around right as Earth stated "…I will allow this request. But Lady Kairi, know that you will not be safe if you choose to go up the staircase. Wait until our battle is over, and one of us will return to you." Kairi, hesitantly, nodded her head and began to walk towards the pagoda, hating everything about this whole situation as she climbed the small staircase and briefly glanced at Earth while the man walked down ready to face Mew.

She did not say a single word as she slid open the paper door and went inside of the pagoda, keeping it open only a bit to watch the battle unfold. Earth stood at the bottom of the staircase, standing a few inches taller than Mew while still having his hand grasped onto the handle of his sword. Mew unfolded his arms and held his right one out, drawing forth his sword from the flames that erupt from his palm. Keeping a half-assed smile on his face as he does this, Mew says to Earth "By the way, my name is Mew. I'd hate for us to fight without us both knowing each other's name."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Earth latched tightly onto his blade's handle and drew it cleanly from the hilt, grasping it in both hands and holding it front and center before him to reveal that it's a slick copper katana. "Introductions are an important part of the duel, so it is quite the shame that it was ruined by the circumstances. However, I hope you have no plans to mince words with me, Elemental Overlord Mew." As Earth said this, his body began to exude a blue-green aura, and his feet dug into the ground and caused the whole pyramid to tremble as though a small earthquake had suddenly hit it.

The tremors increase rapidly in intensity, showing off the raw power that Earth possessed in his body. The aura around him waved around and glowed brightly, and as Mew braced himself on the ground Earth explained to him "The Planetary Aurians all share one trait in common…Our strength is drawn from those across the universe who are aware of and fully believe in the existence of our planets. And I do not refer to all versions of the nine planets across the universe, but merely ours. As the Planetary Aurian of the most inhabited of the nine planets, my strength is not to be underestimated."

When Earth was done powering up, the tremors instantly stopped and his aura stabilized into the form of a two-dimensional representation of the planet behind him that vanished in a couple seconds. Mew put on a somewhat serious expression and said "…Hmm, I figured that was the case. It explains why Venus was weaker than Mercury despite being a later opponent…Oh well, I figured I'd have to try against you."

The battle had thus begun, but instead of Mew immediately attacking Earth he slowly moved his other hand to grab onto the handle of his sword and keep it in front of his body while waiting for Earth to make his first move. But Earth just slowly walked to the right, appearing to be doing the same thing as he walked around Mew's body for a bit. Once five seconds had passed, Mew takes five steps towards Earth in an instant and thrusts his sword forward towards Earth's face.

Earth responds by instantly stopping and raising his sword before his face horizontally to block Mew's sword at the tip. Mew attempts to drag his sword down to go for the armor, but Earth follows the swing of his blade perfectly by lowering his arms so his katana keeps up. The two forces of metal clash together, sparks flying from the tip of Mew's sword without the copper being worn down on the katana. But once both swords were at Earth's waist Mew let go of his sword with his left hand and holds it right at in front of Earth's face, firing off a spread of frost with the intent of preventing him from being able to see for a while.

But Earth does not even flinch, and in a surprising moment from Mew's perspective the frost he unleashes weaves all the way around the edge of Earth's aura and avoids his body entirely. While Mew widened his eyes briefly Earth took advantage of that surprise to grab Mew by his right wrist and hoist him a few inches off the ground with enough strength to jerk on his muscles and bones a slight bit, but his main reason for performing this action was to then slam Mew face first against the grass with enough force to shake the pyramid.

Earth then let go of Mew and stepped back, raising his katana into the air with the blade pointed downward while Mew grimaced and thought to himself _"W-Well that's interesting…" _in regards to what happened to his frost blast. But he had to act first before Earth could strike his back, and thus dispelled his sword momentarily in order to roll to the right unimpeded quite a few feet. Earth stabs into the ground for just a second as he realizes that his attack was going to miss, and upon lifting his blade up he watches as Mew uses his hands to stand up and perform a backflip onto his feet.

Mew stands with his right side facing Earth and glances at him, pondering the nature of his aura as the man holds his katana in his right hand. _"I have to try some other stuff out…" _Mew thinks before he clasps the handle of his sword tightly and turns his body all the way, swinging his left hand forward to grab hold of the roots connected to the bottom of the trees near Earth. The roots grow out and break free from the ground to head straight for Earth, but Earth just glances back and forth over his shoulders before the roots touch his aura and suddenly bend in the completely opposite direction, cracking in half instead of touching their intended target a bit.

Mew pulls back on his hand and thinks to himself after letting out a single 'tsk' _"Can't say this has happened before…" _He then leans forward a bit as Earth then starts to sheathe his katana while grasping the handle with both hands, the aura around his body dragging in the cherry blossom petals towards his hilt, the click of metal coming from his fully sheathed katana stopping the vacuum pulling them in and making the remainder that were moving slowly descend to the grassy floor around him.

The imagery of tranquility is missed by Earth as he closed his eyelids and put himself into a trance-like state, and Mew quickly decided to stop Earth from performing whatever attack he had in mind by leaping forward and setting his sword ablaze with fierce lightning that roared across the garden. With sword held behind him in the grasp of both his hands, Mew swung down in a hard, broad arc that singed through the cherry blossoms and went straight for Earth's right shoulder.

But when the man sensed the cherry blossoms touched, the true nature of his stance was revealed as he widened his eyelids open and let Mew's sword come down, a bright pink seal filled with runes and kanji appearing as a half-dome in front of his body to block the attack, with the aura around him diverting the unleashed lightning straight behind him, where it crashed right through the wall and shook the pyramid for a moment as Earth simultaneously proclaimed "Fragrance's Riposte!"

The seal then shatters, spreading the energy it contained straight at Mew's body while time froze entirely for all but Earth. The energy formed a glowing box of lines with one horizontal line in the center, and Earth drew his katana from his hilt and sliced upward in a diagonal curve above the box to etch another line into the air while simultaneously flushing the atmosphere with a spread of cherry blossom petals. The petals are blown across the air almost endlessly as Earth leaped up and spun around once while swinging his katana in a downward curve, putting in another line connected to both the first curved one and the box. He then stroked the air horizontally three times with his sword to put three lines through those two curved ones, all of them combining together to create the kanji for 'Spring'.

Earth then dropped to the ground and swung his katana around five times in what appeared to be a single motion of his hand, placing his weapon back in the sheath before time resumed and the Spring kanji erupted in a flash of bright light that consumed Mew with the full force of all of Earth's slashes, launching him straight back and down in an instant as some blood leaks out from cuts in his arms and legs. Mew crashes right against the flowered wall and makes a big enough impact that collapses enough of the wall to make a hole that reaches the ceiling. Mew falls onto his knees with him barely having enough time to plant the tip of his sword into the ground to support himself, but his head was now hung forward with him visibly panting to catch his breath after that powerful counterattack, and his fingers were slipping from the handle of his sword slowly.

Earth started to advance towards Mew slowly, and Mew lifted his head up enough to how his grin as he stated "So your aura allows you to reject my elements…" Earth responded to that with a bit of a correction in what was said "You are not too far off…My aura is based around the forces of nature of Earth itself. Anything born from the planet will not ever touch me. That is the power of the Level-Four drive that is now a part of my very being."

Mew commented on this information by chuckling a bit while Earth stopped a few feet in front of him. He then said "…What's power from the planet, eh? You probably should have kept quiet about that detail…" With these details in mind, Mew suddenly firms his muscles and brings forth a large aura of flames around his body while igniting the blade of his sword, increasing his power whole telling Earth "Now you'll see me go at you with 100% of my strength. Come on!"

He then plunged his sword a little deeper into the ground and brought out a series of burning ashes straight up towards Earth's face, and his aura could not at all deflect them, thus leading to Earth getting struck in the face with the ashes. His eyes in particular took the brunt of the ashes and caused him to recoil back in pain as he's temporarily blinded, with Earth raising a hand to his face while grunting in annoyance. Mew quickly dispels his sword and stands upright, going for a swift left hook that strikes Earth straight into the side of his face with all his might.

The cheek bones of Earth crack as Mew presses his knuckles against his face, but he quickly pulls back on his fist and performs a swift right hook to the other side of Earth's face. Both blows push Earth back, but before a third one can be performed Earth recovers from being struck in the face with ashes and promptly counters the next punch by pulling his hand away from his facing and grabbing Mew by the fist. Earth grasped hard and used a lot of his might to hold Mew back, but Mew stubbornly kept trying to push against Earth's palm.

As Earth saw that he was getting overpowered, he quickly prepared to use his katana to slice at Mew's stomach. But Mew was prepared for that and before Earth could perform that he lands onto the ground and crosses his right arm in front of his body to grab onto the katana's blade close to the handle. Earth grunted as he felt resistance in the grasp of his katana, and while fighting to hold Mew back he could feel the katana slipping from his hand. To prevent Mew from having the concentration to keep his actions up, Earth jerks Mew's left hand to his foe's right to open enough of a gap so he can quickly go for a head butt straight to Mew's forehead.

The impact resounded throughout the room, but Mew did not even flinch an inch and instead grinned fiercely at Earth's attempt to stop him, even as his forehead leaked a bit of blood. Mew then pulled on Earth's katana with one single audible grunt and managed to free it from his grasp, going so far as to throw it straight across the room until it impales itself deep into the bark of one of the cherry blossom trees. The blade's impact also shakes some petals free from the tree.

Mew then pulls his fist out of Earth's grasp and steps back twice while still grinning. Earth was not amused by the loss of his katana, but as he glanced to the right and saw how far away it was he knew he wouldn't be able to make a run for it while Mew was standing right in front of him. "It is quite barbarian of me to do this, but you've given me no choice right now…" Earth bemoans before he takes his hands together and cracks his knuckles, each bone making a sound as he does so.

Mew lifts an eyebrow in curiosity, but in the time it takes him to do that Earth had already closed the distance between them and thrown his right fist right into Mew's neck. As a splash of Earth's aura comes out from behind Mew's neck, Mew feels his breath leaving him instantly, dazing him long enough for Earth to grab him by the neck and flip his body around, dragging Mew in an arc over his body before he piledrives him into the ground with enough force to drag protrusions of jagged stone from the ground around the impact zone.

Earth still keeps a grasp on Mew's neck while the boy was buried two feet into the floor, but Mew now had enough energy to speak and said "Y-You're full of surprises…" "I have trained in all forms of combat, from every weapon to all unarmed fighting styles. The history of every one of them is fascinating, to say the least." Earth said, making idle conversation to which Mew calls him out by stating "I-I thought we weren't going to mince words?"

"You're in no position to stop me, are you now?" Earth stated, but as he did so he felt his body sinking forward a bit, revealing that Mew had begun to convert the ground into mud so he could sink his body deeper into it. Mew grinned again as his body was obscured by the mud, with his veil of air preventing him from being dirtied. Knowing that he could be dragged under as well and inconvenienced, Earth let go of Mew and stood upright as the jagged rocks were dragged down to cover the hole.

Earth immediately turned to where his katana was, but knew that going for it now would be a foolish idea considering Mew knew where it was and could easily ambush him from the underground. As such, Earth cautiously walked to a nearby tree and extended his right hand out, reaching into a crevice in the bark to pull out a large silver pike he had stored within it for use in battle. He then slowly walked towards his katana while keeping the pike pointed diagonally towards the ground.

He dug his right foot into the ground a bit to test for vibrations or disruptions in the underground, but he could not sense anything even as he stood completely still for a few seconds. Instead, however, he felt something off with the breeze flowing through his garden. "He already escaped from the ground…" Earth whispered to himself while moving his head around, looking up into the trees branches for any sign of Mew's body. But while he looked around, he heard some flames crackling his way from behind.

Thus he turns around and watches as a head-sized rock bathed in fire flies his way rapidly. Earth thrusts his pike forward and stabs through the small meteor to destroy it, but another one comes up from behind him and manages to bypass his aura thanks to the fire around it, hitting him square in the back of the head and causing him to recoil forward. "Tch!" Earth remarked quickly as yet another two meteors come his way. With two quick thrusts he takes them down, then does not fall for the same trick as he flips his body around and uses the blade of his extended pike to deal with more meteors. With all the directions the meteors were coming from, Earth had no clue where Mew was at the moment.

But he did not get frustrated from this and instead closed his eyelids while listening in to the crackling flames from the meteors so he could react to where they were ahead of time. But the purpose of closing his eyelids was to tighten his focus towards the breeze in his garden. He had spent years memorizing it's flow within his garden, and would thus know where a disruption would be at. It doesn't take Earth long to grimace with intrigue when he notices a protrusion coming from the top branches of one of the trees, the shape fitting a human's perfectly.

And he was right to realize that, for Mew did sit atop the branches of one of the trees while holding a hand against his chest to catch his breath and using the other one to keep sending meteors out at Earth to try and deal some damage in the meantime. But now that Earth had wised up to his little hiding spot it didn't take long for Earth to turns his body sideways and grasping his pike with both hands, using his aura to take the gentle spring breeze around his weapon in a quiet spiral while letting a few of the meteors hit him.

Once the wind had been wrapped around his pike tightly, Earth lined himself up with the tree Mew was in and proclaimed "Everlasting Gale Thrust!" Mew's eyes widened as he finally sensed the wind wrapped around the pike, but by the time he looked to the right it was too late for him to get out of the tree. Earth sprung forth across the ground, covering the distance between him and the tree in a second while thrusting his pike forth in one hand right through the center of the tree.

The wind built within the pike releases into a rapidly expanded tunnel that rips to shreds the bark and cherry blossom petals, and as Earth stands at the end of the wind tunnel with arm extended out and body leaned forward Mew is swept up within the tunnel and slit across the arms by some of the sharp shards of bark that got torn away from the tree. The maelstrom of destruction is something Mew chooses not to fight against, and instead he worked with the flow of the wind to increase his speed to the point that he could push himself out of the tunnel and slam against the ground outside it.

A mistake in his escape leads to him landing on his shoulder, the momentum from flying out being enough to break his bones a bit. He then bounds once and lands on his stomach, but was still in a good enough condition to quickly push himself off the ground with both hands and get on his knees. However, he tilts a bit to the right due to the pain in his shoulder putting him off-balance, but he manages to stare Earth straight in the eyes just in time to see that the man has discarded his pike and grabbed a golden bow that was hidden within the tree he just destroyed.

"You have got to be kidding…" Mew whispers in disbelief in regards to how many weapons Earth seems to have stocked in this room, and he has to put himself on the defensive as Earth uses his aura to gather most of the splintered bark together into a perfectly cohesive arrow. Tugging on the string, Earth fires off the arrow straight through the air towards Mew's body. Mew instinctively widens his eyes and summons forth a walls of flames to burn away the wooden arrow, but Earth's intent was for that to happen as he quickly uses his own aura to fire a hundred arrow barrage through the flames, and though some of them burn away a few pierce right through Mew's skin across his body, with the most major strike being on his already weakened right shoulder.

The arrow breaks right through his shoulder, leaving not a physical wound but leaving an impact of pain so great echoing through Mew's nerves that it was like such a thing did occur. This makes Mew drop his shield of fire and yell out in incredible pain "UAAAAAAGH!" He lurches forward, accompanied by him sweating profusely while Earth began to walk towards him upon seeing Mew place his left arm under his arm one for support. With string pulled back on the bow Earth forms a gigantic arrow in a matter of seconds.

Once he stood five feet before Mew, Earth said "One mistake is all it takes…" Taking aim at Mew's head with his arrow, Earth fails to notice the grin on Mew's face at the angle he stood away from him along with the flames that Mew was keeping hidden in his left hand held underneath his right arm. "Yeah, you hit it on the nose…" Mew remarked while swinging his left hand out from behind it's cover and setting it ablaze with burning bright crimson flames, the flames allowing him to grab Earth's aura arrow from the tip and crush it, leading to the rest of the arrow breaking away before it could be fired off.

With fist clenched Mew fired off a high-power stream of flames right at Earth's entire body, making the man visibly flinch as he is pushed back across the ground and his aura is barely able to prevent his skin from being singed. Fighting against the pain in his right arm, Mew stands up and runs right at Earth, jumping up so he could grab him by the forehead with his still burning hand and then perform a quick flip to get Earth and himself turned around so he once he descended from the air he could kick Earth straight in the armored gut with a blow powerful enough to split a mountain using both of his feet at the same time.

He lets go of Earth as the kick connects, and the armor he wears proves to be quite the buffer as not only does it not break but Earth is only flung back as far as one of the trees in the room that he rips in half by going through it. As the top half of the cherry blossom tree crashes against the ground, Mew lands and grimaces as his right shoulder roars in pain. He clasps his hand onto it but widens his eyes upon realizing "…I just threw him right to his katana…"

Sure enough, Earth leaps out from behind the fallen tree a few seconds later with katana in hand, frazzled by Mew's earlier trickery but not enough to completely disrupt his calm demeanor. He takes the aura in his katana's blade and slices forward in the air to send out multiple crescent blades of energy right down at Mew. Mew flips forward along the ground to avoid getting cut through by the blades while Earth lands on the ground a few feet away from where Mew was before.

Mew spins around on the ground and ends up with both feet and one hand against the ground while he looks up at Earth, who turns around and clasps his katana in both hands, placing it back in front of his body like his initial stance had him at. Mew slowly rises up as Earth states to him "You no longer have use of your right arm. Which means you can no longer use your sword." Mew, with a rather serious look in his eyes, proves Earth wrong immediately by stretching his left arm out and summoning forth his sword, which he immediately grasps onto the handle of as he stares Earth down from afar.

Earth was impressed by Mew's feat and raised his eyebrows in intrigue to acknowledge that, but nevertheless told him "I'm ending this now with my final attack. You have seen the power of nature first hand, but only one single aspect at a time through my attacks. Now, as Gaia's Chosen Guardian, I call upon the energies of Mother Nature herself to bring me the strength for the final attack." At the command of Earth, his blade begins flashing with multiple patterns of aura representing the forces of nature itself.

The grass rustles, the cherry blossom petals rise up from the ground along with the spread out bark, the winds kick up, rain suddenly falls from nowhere, the pyramid trembles with a mighty earthquake, and thunder claps rapidly across the echoes of the garden. "Beautiful flowers, heavenly gales, raging tides, untamed quakes, gentle blizzards and dissuading lightning…Come together with my conviction and let us put an end to this conflict." Mew's only response to this is to set his blade on fire, which causes steam to rise up thanks to all of the rain pouring down.

"Final Strike: Gaia Force Blade!" Earth exclaimed before he raises his katana above his head and sprinted right at Mew in an instant. Mew met his sprint by charging forward at the same time, both of them crossing at the center of the distance between them as a flash of lightning blackens the garden for just a moment. Earth's blade can be seen coming down through the darkness in a mish-mash of colors and patterns, but then two slashes of burning red swipe horizontally through the darkness the very instant that it fades away.

The rain is ended, but Mew stands with his sword held diagonally towards the right side of his body where Earth was as Earth himself was where Mew was with his katana swung down and not a single bit of light radiating from it while Mew's sword still maintained it's fire. After a second's pause, the sides of Earth's armor split open with large cuts dug into his skin that makes blood erupt from his body and causes the man to quickly fall to his knees. As the storm from Earth's final attack calms down, the cherry blossoms that rose up gently fall back to the ground.

While his right arm was still in pain, Mew slowly stood up drenched from the rain and held his sword outright for a few seconds before dispelling it while Earth grabbed onto the right side of his body and keeping his left elbow close to that side to slow down the flow of blood. Earth quietly nd politely said to Mew as he held himself together "…I am…impressed. Your conviction managed to best my own. What is it that you fight for, Elemental Overlord Mew?"

As Mew dispelled his sword he responded honestly "You know exactly what I fight for…I'm not being stupid here." Earth grinned a bit, praising Mew by telling him "No…It seems I was wrong to assume that you were a fool. Your strength is also commendable…" Mew glances back over his right shoulder and says with a tiny smile "I wish I could've shown you more of it, but you held back quite a lot of your own power in this battle."

Earth flinched visibly in surprise, stating with some slight shame towards himself "So you noticed…" "Of course I noticed. It's easy to notice when someone's only using half of their full power against you. Things are really not starting to add-up here, Gabriel, so I think it's time you cut the act and tell me just what are you doing…Or more specifically, who you're actually trying to protect, cause it's definitely not 'Lord' Gravitus." Mew was very firm in his accusations towards Earth's behavior not lining up, and with a tired sigh Earth hung his head forward a bit and admitted "…I am loyal to only one person in this entire universe, and that is Lady Auris."

With a pause, Mew whispered to himself "I knew it." Earth then continued to explain to Mew "Long ago, when all ten tribes existed on the same world, I was in the service of the Ten Sages…One of the sages had a daughter by the name of Auris, and I was tasked to be her guardian. I trained my mind, body and soul to the limits and made myself into a samurai to become the perfect guardian for her. She was a rebellious soul, but I tolerated all her misdeeds and the like because she showed me that she was just a kind person being used as a political tool by the Ten Sages…"

"When the move was made to this Earth, the Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage allowed me to be the Planetary Aurian of this world, so I could not only continue to live as Auris' guardian but protect this new world as well. But it was not long before Gravitus rebelled against his own people, and one of the first moves he made was brutally defeat me in combat and try to force me to serve him. I feared for Lady Auris' well-being, and for her sake I made a deal with Gravitus…I would serve him without question, but only if he did not beat up Lady Auris ever again. That monster agreed to my deal without hesitation…"

"So for two-thousand years, I have been feigning loyalty to Gravitus out of fear for my own life and for the sake of Lady Auris' safety, while at the same time trying my damnedest to stay truly loyal to her…That is also why I have sometimes acted as the foster father for Lady Auris' children over the years. Do you understand now why seeing young Lady Kairi here pained me so much?" Earth's inquiry leads to Mew nodding his head and stating "…I'm sorry I had to bring her before you. I had no idea."

"…While your apology is appreciated, you truly do not have any idea of how far the suffering of my people has gone, especially Lady Auris' suffering. I have lost track of how many of Lady Auris' children have died, but I cannot ever forget how many of them I've been forced to kill with my own sword…All those young, optimistic souls who were robbed of a chance to fulfill their dreams all because of that nihilistic monster and his neverending desire for power, they haunt me in my sleep…And I know that I deserve every waking regret, for I am a dishonorable fool who thought that I could always protect my most precious one."

"…Then why did you hold back against me, Gabriel?" Mew inquired after looking down at the ground with a melancholy expression. "Because you're the glimmer of hope I've been looking for all these years, Elemental Overlord…I believe, without a doubt, that you can put an end to Gravitus, bring an end to my people's suffering…And make it so that the only tears that ever come from Lady Auris' face again are those of joy…" Earth explained, sounding weaker than he did before because of the blood that continued to drip out slowly.

"…I promise you, Gabriel, that I will make Gravitus pay for everything he has done." Mew said with serious honesty as clenched his fist against his chest and trembled a bit in anger, he then turned to Earth and asked "Am I supposed to tell Kairi about all of this?" Earth shook his head slowly and laughed at such a thought, telling Mew in an almost pleading manner "I have hurt Kairi enough with my deceit…No, that girl has suffered enough because of deceit. She has no reason to forgive someone like me, so please do not try and force her to do so. Just do whatever you can to protect her, no matter the cost…"

"Heh, that was my plan from the start, Gabriel…By the way, are you going to be alright? I hope I didn't cut too deep." Mew wondered empathetically, and Earth said to him "It is just a couple of flesh wounds…I will recover if I stay relaxed…But you have given me hope today, Elemental Overlord Mew, and if my hopes are fulfilled then I shall be eternally grateful to you." "Thanks, but it's not necessary for you to express your gratitude. I'm just doing what I can to help cause it's the right thing to do…I'm pretty simple like that when it comes to my motivations." Mew replied with a smile on his face.

"…Even so, if such simplicity puts you on the side of my people, then that's all the reassurance I need." Earth stated, smiling as his body relaxed. Mew then said to him "Rest easy, Gabriel…Me and Kairi still have to go through six of your allies before we can reach Gravitus." He then turned away from the man and walked through the garden of cherry blossoms and rainwater drenched grass to go back to the pagoda, while Earth murmured to himself "…I wish you luck…For there is still one Planetary Aurian that is even stronger than me…"

_Next Time: The Laid Back Man_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Mars the Goofball**

Inside of Earth's pagoda, Kairi was in the middle of pacing back and forth while looking rather tense. She hummed to herself in a melancholic manner as she held her hands close to her face, rubbing her chin with one hand while hearing the intensity of the battle between Earth and Mew unfold behind her. She did not know who to support in this instance, for despite Earth being a traitor in her eyes he was still her father figure, but Mew was still helping her out to stop Gravitus…

"Why did this have to happen…?" Kairi murmured to herself, and all of a sudden the chaos from outside the pagoda ends, leaving nothing but silence outdoors while Kairi turns her head towards the paper door and gasped. "…Someone has won…" Kairi remarked, and she walks towards the door with the thought in her head to peer outside to see who won. But she hesitated greatly as she began to reach her hand out, and stopped herself from checking at the moment.

"Oh…" Kairi groaned in melancholy before stepping back and laying her hand close against her chest, and listened in as someone soon began to walk towards the pagoda. She couldn't tell just who was coming based on the sound of the footsteps along, so her body remained tense and her heart beat fast against her chest until the paper door began to slide open. She then took a deep breath and hoped for the best no matter who stepped in while she closed her eyelids and waited for the voice to confirm who had won.

Through the darkness of her closed eyelids, Kairi hears the familiar nonchalant voice of Mew say to her "Hey Kairi, I've won the battle, you don't have to worry about me anymore." Kairi creaks her eyelids open then and there, seeing Mew walk into the pagoda while waving his right hand up beside his head. Kairi opened her mouth and let out a relieved sigh, whispering to herself with her head hung low "Thank god…"

"Something up?" Mew inquired with a tilt of his head, and Kairi looked up and shook her head while insisting "N-No! I'm glad you won! W-We should probably get a move on to the next Planetary Aurian." Kairi then turned around and looked ready to leave through the back of the pagoda but Mew stopped her by raising his right hand up and pointing towards her to give her a brief shock in the back that makes her body tingle a bit before he states "Hang on a second there Kairi. I know you're still concerned about Gabriel."

Kairi turns around and chuckles with a forced smile, saying "It's no big deal, really. He was a traitor…No need to talk about him anymore." Mew called her out immediately, but was relaxed in his words as he told her "Kairi, it's definitely not a good idea to keep your feelings bottled up. Talk to me, what's on your mind?" Kairi groaned internally, but didn't take long to turn to face the ground beside her and state "…I was told they were all a myth, but one of the Planetary Aurians was someone close to me this entire time…I-I was lied to my whole life and I just can't bring myself to understand why…"

Mew tapped his right foot against the ground for a couple seconds as he thought about the reason based on all he's seen so far, but while he did so he looked at Kairi and said "I imagine you were probably the only one of your people who didn't know about the Planetary Aurians being real…Kairi, I have to ask, do you know what your mother's abilities are?" Kairi turned her head to face Mew and said "Y-Yeah…She made it clear to me when I was young that she had been around since the original Elemental Overlord's time, and I know she has the ability to see the future…"

Mew's expression immediately becomes cross as he hears that last part, and he thinks to himself _"…Damn it Auris, why the hell would you do this to your own daughter?" _Kairi, meanwhile, was grabbing the sides of her head and looking to be on the verge of a breakdown as she muttered out "Why did it have to be Gabriel…? Why…? TELL ME WHY!" "Kairi…I can't tell you exactly why…But please believe me when I say that Gabriel is still someone you can trust." Mew stated.

Kairi remarked afterwards in anguish "I can't trust anyone! Not even my own mother!" As Kairi whimpered a bit, Mew paused in thought, but then extended his right hand out and said "You can trust me. After all, I have been nothing but honest with you so far." Kairi shook her head in regards to that comment and continued to look down, telling Mew bluntly "Yeah right…How do I know you aren't just going to lie to me later?"

"…" Mew was quiet for a moment, but then he smiled and got a bright idea. "Kairi, can you please lift your head up and look at me for a moment?" He asked, and Kairi did exactly that while saying "What do you wa-" she's stopped midway through by a rather bizarre sight that turns her expression quickly to one of fluster. Mew was leaning forward with his nose lifted up to make his nostrils look as big as a pig snout and his upper row of teeth pressed against the skin below his lower lips.

His expression was incredibly goofy and ill-fitting of the situation, but by looking at it Kairi suddenly spit out some air through her closed lips as she tried to hold back her laughter and smile, the force of her efforts making her lurch forward slightly. However, she can't hold back for long and opens her mouth to let out a very cute and genuine laugh befitting her age. She laughs for a good few seconds while muttering out "D-Damn it…! T-That's a dirty move…! Hahahaha!"

Kairi laughed so hard that her eyelids shut, and with his job done Mew puts his expression back to normal and stands upright while saying "So you ARE capable of laughing." Kairi, once her laughter began to die down, looked straight up at Mew's humored smile for a few seconds before her face became flushed with red and she looked completely embarrassed by her laugh, and she turned herself around in a second and folded her arms together against her chest while exclaiming "D-Don't ever do that again!"

"Why not? It's good to laugh. Besides, don't you feel a lot better now?" Mew inquired, and before Kairi was ready to berate Mew for that question she realized that while she still had some concerns on her mind the stress she felt in her body had gone away. Kairi didn't have to say anything for Mew to know what she had figured out, and with a smile Mew said while gesturing his right hand out beside him "I guess there's really no way I can stop you from thinking about this whole mess, but we're also not in any position to turn around and go ask your mother why she didn't tell you about Gabriel's role in the Planetary Aurians. Just remember to ask her later, alright?"

Kairi nodded her head in agreement of that, though she was somewhat hesitant to do so. Mew then said to her enthusiastically "Great! So how about we move on to the next Planetary Aurian, Mars?" Kairi looked at Mew over her shoulder and said "Yeah…That's probably not a bad idea." Mew then took the lead, and the two of them leave Earth's pagoda through the backdoor, ending up near the staircase to the next floor.

The two make the climb to the next chamber at a rather normal pace, with Mew holding his left hand behind his head and whistling a merry tune to himself. Kairi noted him not using his right arm, and asked "Hey Mew…Did you hurt your right arm in battle against Gabriel?" Mew nodded his head and said nonchalantly "Yeeeep. He got a few good blows on my right shoulder, so it's out for now. It'll heal up soon."

"Does it hurt?" Kairi inquired, and Mew responded with "Oh of course it does…Well, only when I move it too much." "Geez though…You won with one arm disabled." Kairi said, sounding a bit impressed by how Mew pulled off his victory. Mew just shrugged the praise off nonchalantly and went back to whistling without saying another word.

"Sigh…I get the feeling I'm never going to get how you operate…" Kairi bemoaned while rubbing her forehead with her right fingers, and Mew chuckled at her reaction. The two then continued their climb up the remainder of the staircase until they finally made it to Mars' chamber. It's a bit of a relief for both of them that there is a portal at the end of the room, but their relief in that regard is marred a bit by the confusion they experience when the examine the chamber. Mars' chamber was set-up rather oddly, with there being a large plasma TV, about every game console you can imagine, a wall filled with thousands of video games, most exercise machines in a separate glass chamber to the right, a twenty-foot tall refrigerator, a very wide series of cupboards, and many other things that made this pretty much the biggest recreational room on the planet.

"What the hell?" Kairi said in disbelief after she took some time to look at this room. Mew on the other hand smiled widely and said in an excited tone of voice "I think I'm going to like this guy a lot!" "Ugh, you're seriously going to be having a long casual conversation with this guy, aren't you?" Kairi groaned at Mew's behavior.

But Mew just glanced back at her with his bright smile and told her "Nice to see the brutally honest Kairi has returned. I missed you." "I just needed you to give me a dose of your stupidity again, no big deal." Kairi remarked with her lips curled into a smirk, and after he chuckled once Mew looked on ahead and answered her earlier question with "But yeah, I'm going to probably talk with Mars a bit. Really, this room doesn't give me a good idea of how he fights, which is surprising…"

"Sigh…You don't really need to use his room to figure it out. Mars' title gives it away…" Kairi says, sounding a bit embarrassed by what she was about to reveal. As Mew turns around to give her his full attention she states "He's known as The Master Nunchucker." Mew had to hold back his laughter a bit at the title, letting out a brief snicker before he said "Nunchucker isn't even a word…He must have been the one who chose his own title."

"Yeah yeah, probably. Look, it's enough to tell us that he uses nunchucks." Kairi says in a rather rushed manner, and Mew lifted his head up and remarked while rubbing his chin in excitement "I've never fought anyone who uses nunchucks before…Too bad my right arm's healing, otherwise I'd be able to now. So I hope you have fun with that type of battle style." Mew then turned around and began to walk to the portal, and while Kairi followed him she remarked "Hmph, well at least if I fight him we won't be wasting time talking."

"Oh don't be like that. You could enjoy having a conversation with him." Mew told her happily, and Kairi gleamed at him and said "If he's anything like you, at least I'll be able to punch him in the face if he gets on my nerves." "Yeah no, I'm adding another part to that rule I made earlier, so you CAN'T punch him in the face for being annoying unless you're fighting." Mew replied so quickly that it was like he knew that was going to be Kairi's response.

Kairi had her mouth agape before stating "Oh you're just a KILLJOY sometimes. What are you even going to do if I break one of those rules?" "You're just asking that now? Honestly, I wasn't planning on doing anything. I just thought it'd be interesting to see if you'd follow then." Mew said, followed by Kairi widening her eyes like an angry bull and raising a pointer finger up ready to object, but then she found there was no point in doing so especially as Mew entered the portal to go to Mars' location.

After yet another warp through time and space, one that was shorter than usual, the two find themselves on the fourth planet from the sun, another barren land filled with red, brown and orange rocks with a pink-orangish sky. There were plenty of craters spread around the planet along with a couple small mountains. The planet was colder than Earth by a few degrees, but otherwise there was nothing harmful minus the lack of oxygen, which Kairi had natural protection against and Mew had his wind veil summoned.

"Ok, so this makes me the first human from my Earth to travel to Mars. I really don't see why we'd want to put colonies here, it'd take a ton of work just to make it look interesting…" Mew comments while relaxing his left hand behind his head again. Kairi remarked "Yeah, it's very boring to look at…Really, none of the planets so far have had any interesting sights…You know, minus Earth." Mew smiled and said "But it's still interesting to go to them. We're accomplishing what very few beings can ever hope to achieve."

"…My mom took our people across the universe to your Earth, it's not that impressive really." Kairi pointed out, with Mew sighing with a deflated smile before stating "Yeah yeah…I walked right into that one. Well, guess we should call out for the Planetary Aurian now." Kairi raises a hand to her face and exclaims "Way ahead of you. HEY DUMBASS, GET OUT HERE, YOU GOT COMPANY!"

Mew blinks a couple times in surprise at Kairi's bluntness at that particular moment, but it seems to have worked to their advantage as a voice echoes out from afar with embarrassment and excitement "S-SORRY! I'LL BE RIGHT OVER!" Mew looks over the mountains and suddenly sees someone sprinting towards them. It only takes twenty seconds for them to cover probably hundreds of miles of land before they made it right in front of them.

The person didn't slow down as he jogged in place for a few seconds, showing them to be a teenage male with orange skin, untrimmed bright brown hair, and a pair of yellow eyes. Oddly enough, he wore casual clothes consisting of a brown t-shirt, rugged black jeans, and he had a leather belt that clasped red-white nunchucks close to his right hip. The lack of shoes or socks were really noticeable as well. Once the man stopped jogging he said to his two guests while panting to catch his breath "I-I haven't had any guests in a while. How're you doing?"

Kairi went silent while Mew raised his right hand up and waved it to say happily "Doing pretty good. It's felt like a long day, and we're not even halfway done. By the way, my name's Mew, and you are?" The mysterious boy looked Mew straight at the face and held his right hand while replying "Name's Aurian Mars, fourth in line out of nine." Mew and Mars shook their hands, and Mew then continued the conversation by asking him "I know which Planetary Aurian you are, I was more curious to know your real name."

Mars raised his eyebrows up in surprise and chuckled, telling Mew as he does one last gasp of breath catching "Wow, no one ever really bothers with that when they come here. I'm guessing you asked the three before me their names?" "Eh, I only asked Venus. I don't know Mercury's names and she knew Earth personally." Mew said while gesturing towards Kairi casually, and now that Mars had a reason to look at her he flinches a moment and his heart skips a beat, leading to him laying a hand against his chest while extending another one out and saying "It's a pleasure to meet you. What's your name?"

Kairi reluctantly raises her right hand up and says while noticing Mars' odd smile "…Kairi?" "Kairi? …Oh hey! You're Auris' daughter! Earth told me a lot about you. You're so much more grown-up looking than you were in those pictures too." As Mars makes these acknowledgements clear he takes his right hand up and moves it diagonally upward from the top of his head to the top of Kairi's while Kairi herself looked a bit perturbed by the mention of her mother. With a look of surprise Mars said "You're taller than me. I'd say it's weird to be shorter than a girl, but I already knew three that are taller than me before this, haha…"

Noticing Kairi's perturbed expression, Mars stepped back and tilted his head, cracking a smile before asking "Something up? You need a good laugh?" Mew let out a 'tsk' and told Mars "She does, but I think now's not the best time. You kind of accidentally brought something up that shouldn't have been mentioned." Mars recoiled his head back and instantly looked regretful for his mistake, and as he suspends his arms out he remarks "Ah shit, seriously? I seriously have NO tact, I'm so sorry for offending you Kairi…"

"Whatever, it's not your fault. Grumble…" Kairi quietly said, and after a momentary pause Mars straightens up and remarks "Whew, thank you for that…I hate offending people…Which really doesn't go well with my lack of tact, but what are you going to do sometimes." Then after a few more seconds, Mars flinches back again and exclaims "Ah shit! I forgot to answer your earlier question before I switch off to another conversation, Mew!"

Straightening himself and swinging a thumbs-up before his chin as he smiled, Mars stated with enthusiasm "My real name's Seth! As for Mercury, the hot-side's name is Michael and the ice-side's name is Raphael!" "Alright, good to know that. So Seth, you obviously know why we're here, yeah?" Mew remarked, and Mars nodded his head and said happily "Yep! You need to fight me to get the portal out of the way so you can move on to fight my five other allies."

Mars then pumps his fists a short distance forward in rapid succession, stating to Mew "I really wish we could just hang out and have some fun, but that's not how this whole thing works. Then again, I guess I wouldn't have accepted the job as a Planetary Aurian if I wasn't trained to fight." Mars then leap backwards and placed his hands against the ground, performing a handstand back a few feet before he flips back onto his feet while Mew says to him "Hey, we can always hang out another time assuming the two of us stop Gravitus."

"I'd love that personally. It'd be nice to hang out with someone that looks my age. But for now, lets get on with the fighting, eh?" Mars suggested, and Mew agreed with that and said while stepping back and gesturing both hands to the right "If you don't mind, Kairi will be the one fighting you." Kairi glances back at Mew after spending a lot of time being silent and says in a surprised tone "Huh? You haven't healed up yet?"

"Nope. I'll still need another ten minutes. So go ahead, entertain Mars for a bit with a good battle while I spectate." Mew said while waving the backs of his left fingers forward and smiling. Kairi grumbled to herself as she turned to look at Mars "He's totally healed up by now…Whatever, I need this battle to relieve some stress." She then stepped forward once while reaching to her belt to grab her shrunk staff, pressing the button down to extend it out while keeping a serious expression on her face.

Mars widened his eyes and clapped his hands twice, giving a whistle while saying "Nice staff! Did you make it yourself?" Kairi didn't say anything as an answer as she got into her pre-battle pose, and Mars tilted his head in a befuddled manner before leaning to the right to look at Mew and ask "She's not very talkative, is she?" Mew exclaimed in response "Eh, she's an odd type of gal! Don't be too hard on her!"

Kairi flinched in anger for a moment and growled internally while Mars swung back and stated "Wasn't being hard on her, I've just never seen a girl look so serious before." "Are you going to keep wasting my time or are we going to fight?" Kairi inquired bluntly, and Mars sighed while reaching for his belt, saying to Kairi in a laid-back manner after he grabbed hold of his nunchucks "Smile a bit, having some harmless fun won't kill you."

"Once I defeat you I'll have the biggest shit-eating grin on my face like you won't believe." Kairi said with the same manner of bluntness, and Mars merely shrugged while spinning his nunchucks above his head using one finger near the center of the chain. He then said to Kairi "I mean it's not like you have that tough of a challenge ahead of you, I'm nothing strength-wise compared to Aurian Earth. But if you think it's going to be a victory for you just roll with things and try to have some fun, I won't judge you for that."

He then clasped the nunchucks together and held them beside his hip before widening his eyes and realizing "Oh yeah, I guess the battle is starting now, so lets go at-" The moment Mars gave permission for the battle to start, Kairi rushed at him and tried to go for a staff thrust right towards his forehead. Mars grit his teeth and bent his body backwards until his head was close to the ground, keeping his balance while remarking "Whoooa! Ok, I see you're out for blood!"

Mars then lifts his legs up, carefully navigating his crotch along Kairi's extended staff until he could flip back and land on his feet without hurting a single one of his bones. He then swung one end of his nunchuck around in a circle and summoned forth a mahogany aura around his body. Kairi then runs forward a bit while spinning her body around clockwise, extending her staff out in the air so she'd be able to hit Mars hard from the side of his body. But Mars just smiles and casually flips one side of his nunchucks to the right while saying "Alley-oop!"

The one side of the nunchuck alone is able to strike Kairi's staff, repelling it back as Kairi balances herself with both feet. As the staff goes back to the right a bit against Kairi's control, Mars hopped forward and clasped his nunchucks together, using them to perform a quick jab into Kairi's chin that makes her head go up a bit before she looks down and sees Mars' smiling face. This sets her off and she recovers from the recoil of her staff being repelled in order to sweep it in front of her to try and hit Mars' head.

Mars uses his small stature to duck down and completely avoid the staff, though this causes him to take a kick to the face for his troubles. But once Kairi lowers her leg and prepares to bring the staff down with both hands Mars retaliates by grabbing his nunchuck by one end and sweeping it right into the back of Kairi's legs in a single swift move. Kairi is tripped up midway through her own attack and ends up falling onto her back while letting out a single "Damn it!" and having an irritated look on her face.

Mars then lifted himself up and stepped back two feet, asking Kairi while tip-toeing and peering his head at her "Hey, you holding up ok so far?" Kairi exclaimed angrily "I'm fine! Don't you dare be concerned about me!" while she slowly propped herself back up. Mars sighed and said "I told you to relax…Oh wait, craaaaaap…I forgot about my aura's ability." Mars then slaps his forehead and groaned at his stupidity, especially once the first thing Kairi did upon getting to her feet was run forward and rapidly thrust her staff at Mars while growling internally in anger.

Mars swerved his head around like a blur to dodge all of the staff thrusts while swinging his nunchucks back and forth to deflect the thrusts that come his way. While he was stepping back to dodge the staff thrusts, Mars heard Mew exclaim "Kairi! Calm yourself down! Remember what I told you?" Mars answered while in the middle of his dodging "It's probably my fault. My aura exudes excitement, making people get excited and therefore enjoy their battle a lot more…It seems as though excitement in this case didn't blend well with her anger…"

Mew grit his teeth a moment while Mars flips back twice to get out of the range of Kairi's attacks, and Mew let out a prolonged 'oooo' before he said "T-That was definitely not something I expected to happen." "Yeah I know, I got like a Level-One Aurian Drive, but it seems to be a lot more useful than you'd think…Minus now." Mars remarks, leaping back with a bit of grief in his voice as Kairi slams her staff down hard enough to crack the ground and shake the planet.

While Kairi's staff was in the ground, Mars ran up onto it with great balance and agility, leaping once he stepped on Kairi's hand and proceeding to flip himself around and rapidly spinning his nunchucks against Kairi's face while holding his weapon by the chain via one finger and some careful spinning. Once Mars lands behind Kairi he uses his weapon to lash her twice in the center of her back, sliding a couple inches along the ground as he does so. Kairi responds after the first last by spinning around and smacking Mars right in the side of the face before he could duck down.

The blow was hard and sent Mars flying through the air onto the side of his body, though he catches himself with his right hand after throwing his weapon over to the other, taking the friction from skidding on the ground for a moment before spinning his body around with unbelievable dexterity, lifting his body up slowly until he was upright while on one hand. He then jumped high into the air to avoid getting hit when Kairi comes crashing down with her aura covered staff, which brings up rocks and some aura spikes from the ground.

While Mars was in the air he took his weapon and increased the length of it by pulling on both ends to reveal more of the chain. Mew takes note of not just that, but also of the fact that Kairi wasn't flying up to chase after her opponent. Instead she thrust her staff upward and used her aura to extend out a tall spike towards Mars. Mars however just veers to the right enough that the spike only manages to clip through his pants and cut into the top of his legs. "Ech!" Mars reacted before he turned himself upside-down and began to dive down towards Kairi.

"Grrrraaaah!" Kairi roared like an angry cat at the little damage she was doing to her opponent, and as such she tried to summon forth other spikes from the tall one to intercept Mars as he descended. Mars simply spins his nunchucks out again like helicopter blades, infusing them with hardened aura so they'd be effective in ripping through the spikes. He stops once he gets past the taller spike, flipping himself around just in time to thrust his legs forward to simultaneously kick the surprised Kairi in the chest and push him back through the air.

Unfortunately, he didn't prove able to do anything but land on his back afterwards while Kairi was only pushed back a few feet along the ground due to her chest blocking most of the blow's force. Kairi's aura flared up as she continued to growl in anger, and while Mars was getting back onto his feet Mew exclaimed nonchalantly "Kairi, you probably should try calming yourself down before you strain your heart." "I-I can't!" Kairi struggled to exclaim while grasping her staff tightly in both hands while lowering it.

"Wait, seriously?" Mew said, and after Mars whispers to himself happily "Heh, not even Jupiter gets this energetic…Though I'm going to lose my head here if I don't keep playing carefully" he looks at Mew and tells him "I can't say I've ever seen this happen to someone who got affected by my aura. She must have a lot of inner anger or something if that's how her excitement manifests…"

"Well you know, maybe it'd be best to take her back to your rec room in the pyramid so she can calm down there. I mean that is what that's for, right?" Mew casually inquired, and Mars waved his hand down and said "Oh no no no, that's just what I use in my downtime when Gravitus doesn't need me for missions. Some of the other Planetary Aurians play with me as well, and I've even invited some of the regular Aurians up." "Oh, so you're quite popular around the city?" Mew asked.

"Yeah actually. Having the lowest body count out of all my allies probably has a lot to do with it. Look, Mars is cool and all, but there's no signs of life for miles. I actually found it pretty funny when the humans sent some stuff here to try and look for any signs, and I planted some stuff here just for the hell of it." Mars answered while folding his arms behind his head, seemingly ignoring his battle as he entered a conversation with Mew. "Aw bummer, I honestly thought-"

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TALKING TO HIM EVEN WHEN YOU AREN'T FIGHTING HIM?!" Kairi exclaimed with the most absolute fury in her voice, and Mew immediately skipped a heartbeat while having a blank expression on his face. Mars on the other hand whispered to himself with a nervous chuckle "…What I wouldn't give to be punched in the face by Jupiter right about now." Kairi then slammed onto her Aurian drive bracelet with her left hand while exclaiming "Screw it! I'm just going to keep going with this and end this battle with my Beast Tamer Drive!"

With her Aurian drive activated Kairi's aura changes to a different color and she quickly lashes her newly formed whip against the ground to summon forth her gigantic grizzly bear of aura. Mars remarked in surprise as he looks up as the bear after a quick impressed whisper "Wow, nice ability you have there. What's it do besides that?" Kairi quickly answers that question by lashing her whip into the back of her bear, filling it with her aura to greatly increase it's size.

Mars has to lean his head back pretty far in order to keep looking the aura bear in the eyes, and by then his impression of the creature becomes one of concern. "…Hey Mew, you would've gone easy on me if we fought, right?" Mars then inquires casually, with Mew exclaiming as his reply "I'm so sorry things ended up like this Seth! But hey, try and hold out!" Mars sighed as the bear roared, and with a swing of his weapon around he said "Easy for you to say, bro."

Mars then leaped towards the aura bear and used his aura infused nunchucks to rapidly jab the creature in the chest, leaving visible circle impacts in the chest as he does so. But the bear barely reacted to the attacks and swung it's mighty right claw down to knock Mars right out the air, where he flies right into the ground and creates a large impact with the ground that upheavals some of the rocks before Mars bounds off to another part of the land.

He wouldn't have much of a break though as Kairi was already there standing overhead with her whip held in both hands and some visible panting because of how heavily her heart was beating from all the excitement. "Heh…I'm guessing you're getting into this now?" Mars remarked with a nervous grin, and Kairi clanked her whip together and with an all too eager grin she says merrily "I'm REAAAAAAAALLY feeling it now."

Mars widened his eyes with some fear and then raised his weapon up, spinning it around rapidly to parry the whip lashes Kairi quickly performs on him. But Kairi just bypasses his defenses by stepping back and having her aura bear thrusting it's gargantuan left claw down and burying them into the ground deeply so it can pick Mars right up. Poor Mars is then taken down a few pegs when the aura bear lifts him into the air and then slams him against the ground to the right of it's body. But it doesn't stop there as the bear repeatedly slams Mars back and forth against the ground, roaring all the while.

Mew at this point starts to grimace, as though he felt the pain Mars was experiencing with every impact against the ground he made. After ten smashes Kairi had the aura bear just casually toss Mars forward, and Kairi swung her whip up to wrap it around Mars' body and then turn herself around as she down on her whip with both hands. Mars is brought out of the sky with a lurch of his body forward and slammed against the ground one last time in front of Kairi.

Mars laid stomach first against the crater his body created, and Kairi stood on his back with one foot while turning her whip back into a staff and lining it up with his body, a rather fervent expression on her face as the aura around Mars' weakened body goes away. Mars remarks after a chuckle "Ok, ok, you win…Did you at least have some fun?" Kairi replies all too happily "Oh I had TONS of fun! But I didn't say I was done yet, now did I?"

Mars gulped a bit before saying nervously "W-Wait a second, what?" But before this whole situation could escalate further, Kairi is suddenly splashed right in the face by a bubble of cold water which bursts open and drenches her only in the face. This immediately snaps Kairi out of water overexcited state she was in, and she blinks a few times as the water drips off of her face and lands on the ground around her thanks to some careful directing from the approaching Mew. With a nonchalant smile, Mew said "I think that's enough Kairi. You won the battle, ok? Now get your foot off Seth and let him get back up."

Kairi glances down at Mars immediately and sees him wave up at her, and without hesitation she lifts her foot up and puts it down away from Mars' body. She then shrinks her staff down and puts it on her belt while Mew stands in front of Mars and helps him get back onto his feet. Once that was done Mars brushes off a ton of dust from his clothes and puts his weapon onto his own belt, turning around to look at Kairi and saying with a barely caring smile as he extends his right hand out "You're pretty good. Honestly, it was a fun fight."

Kairi hesitantly extends her right hand out and says "Y-Yeah…I suppose it was…" while the two shake hands. Mew then folds his arms together and taps his foot against the ground as he mentions "Kairi, you know what else you have to do." Embarrassed for her earlier behavior, Kairi said "S-S-S-S-Sorry for getting so worked up during that battle…"

Mars nonchalantly replied "Not at all! Don't be sorry! I was the dumbass who caused the problem to occur by summoning forth my aura!" _"Well that's partially true…Kairi's pent up emotions caused most of the problems really." _Mew thought to himself while rubbing his chin, and while on that train of thought he asked of Mars "Hey Seth, you sure your aura causes excitement?"

"Huh? Yeah, other opponents I've faced have gotten excited when they make contact with my aura." Mars remarked after letting go of Kairi's hands and turning sideways to better look at Mew. Mew then theorized "Actually, it's more likely that it amplifies the most prominent emotion inside a person's body. Happiness would become excitement, and annoyance would become untamed rage…"

"Really now? I guess I never considered that before. I'm pretty proficient with my nunchucks, but other than that I'm really not battle experienced." Mars explains while brushing his right arm out, leading to Kairi questioning "…Then why would Gravitus want you on his side?" Mars glanced back and explained "Beats me. I guess he just wanted all nine of us to not have an incomplete set. He kicked my ass pretty hard back then, but he's also just content with letting me lax around and have fun…He's not exactly a fun guy himself though, sadly."

Mars then folded his arms behind his head while Mew rubbed his chin some more, stating to Mars afterwards "Well Seth, I wish we could stick around a little longer and hang out, but we sadly have to move on to Jupiter." "Eh, I get that. You got business to do and places to be. Like I said though, once you've wrapped up everything come back and hang out with me. I'm just one portal visit away." Mars said with great relaxation in his voice.

Mew moved his hands away from his face and nodded his head, but then asked of Mars "Oh yeah, we've got this thing going where we take a break after every two Planetary Aurians. Is it ok if we raid your fridge for food while we relax?" Mars waves his right hand out past the side of his head and states "Hey, go right ahead. I'll just have to make a slightly larger order the next time I need some food."

"Not like we'll be eating that much, but thank you very much for your hospitality." Mew said, and him and Mars shake hands one time before Mew passes by him and taps Kairi once on the shoulder to snap her out of whatever funk she was in and get her to turn around and follow him back to the portal. Before they get too far away though, Mars waves his hand out and exclaimed "Good luck with Jupiter! She's quite the handful!"

"Thanks for that warning!" Mew exclaimed while lifting his left hand up beside his face. He then chuckled before saying in a rather serious manner "Kairi, we're going to have quite a bit to talk about regarding how you fight when we get back to the pyramid." Folding her arms and looking away from Mew, Kairi grumbled out the word "Joy…" before the two of them stepped into the portal and left this planet behind…

_Next Time: The Art of Battle_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The Second Respite: How We Fight**

_Once more Kairi was left thinking about the past. She was thinking about things a few years later, when she was older and was now wearing a long green dress that extended down to her knees. She also had some blue shorts on, showing that her choice in colors was around even back then. She was only a few feet tall, but was able to walk on her own now. She happily trotted through the living room of her house, lifting each foot up high while humming an innocent little tune. _

_Eventually the young Kairi wanders close to the couch, where her sister Shina was sitting down and looking straight at the TV with a game controller in both of her hands and her tongue poking out on the left side of her lips as she focused intensely on the game. At this point in time Shina was four and a half something feet tall, and she was wearing loose beige summer shorts and a blue sleeveless shirt along with a blue headband on her shoulder-length blonde hair._

_It doesn't take long for Shina to lose a life in the game, leading to her pulling back on her body and letting out an exasperated "Aw drat." She puts the controller down on the arm of her chair and decides to take a juice break, reaching for the plastic cup on the table and finally realizing that Kairi was standing close by as she stretched her arm out. Keeping it out, Shina smiled and said "Hi Kairi! How are you doing today little sis?" _

_With a giggle Kairi tilts her head and remarks with closed eyelids "I'm feeling happy today. What are you doing there Shina?" Shina picks up her juice cup and sits upright, pointing her left hand past her neck at the TV while explaining "It's called a video game. You haven't seen them yet, have you? Mom bought some of them at the Earth Import Mall." Laying a hand against her chin, Kairi remarks curiously "Vidjya gaymes? Eaarth?" _

"_Heheheh, you'll learn plenty about the Earth when you start taking classes this year Kairi. But video games I can tell you about now. They are games with cool and interesting fantasy settings, and you can interact with them with your own two hands via these things called controllers!" Shina explained while thrusting her arms up enthusiastically, accidentally spilling some of the juice from her drink onto the arm of the couch much to her embarrassment. As Shina looks at the stain with an awkward smile Kairi brightens her expression and says "So they are like playable fairy tales!"_

_With Shina rubbing the stain with the bottom of her shirt to try and get it out frantically, she replies with "Yeah! That's not a bad comparison! I'll let you try them out some other time though, I'm in the middle of a brutal session, and it wouldn't be fair to have you start off with something so tough." When Shina failed to get the stain out, she just sighed and went back to playing her games, promising to herself to tell her mother the truth later about the stain._

_Kairi meanwhile sat down on the opposite couch and laid herself atop the arm of the couch, watching her sister play the game with so much happiness and enthusiasm while also finding the time to explain the intricate details of the game even though Kairi was too young to understand a lot of them. She and Shina laughed at how silly some of the stuff in the game was while Kairi also poked fun at her own naivety. _

_After a couple hours of this, the two sisters heard a knock on the side of their house and turned to the cloth door, and walking through it was Gabriel, the man the present Kairi now knew as Aurian Earth. The man wore some casual clothing consisting of a nice business tux and white undershirt and brown jeans. He also had on a pair of glasses and his hair was kept down, a stark contrast from the warrior he'd eventually be revealed as. Kairi immediately ran off the chair and leaped at Gabriel while happily proclaiming his name._

_Gabriel held Kairi in his arms in a gentle hug, telling her in a very impressed and joyous voice "Oh ho! Now just who is this big girl in my arms?" "Hehehe, stop it Gabriel, you saw me last month!" Kairi happily said, and Gabriel smiled and said "Yes, it has been that long, hasn't it? I've been away on my job, but I'll be able to spend some time with two of my favorite girls for a few days before I go back." _

"_Are you ever going to tell us what your job is? Or why you have green skin?" Kairi fired off a couple questions with a great deal of innocent curiosity, leading to Gabriel rubbing the top of her hair and telling her "The green skin is a part of my job, and perhaps I will tell you when you're older." Kairi is let go of and after she drops on the ground she points at herself and states happily "I am plenty old! I am six years old."_

"_Hahaha, your sister is eight and even she doesn't need to know my job yet. But don't worry, I may not be able to give you an answer, but instead I'll be able to make you both a wonderful dinner." The talk of food from Gabriel made both Kairi and Shina cheer on happily. And by this point in Kairi's memories, she starts thinking about what Gabriel had said to her, making her realize that things were suspicious from the very start regarding Gabriel's true job…_

But once more she is snapped out of her memories by Mew speaking to her, with him stating "Hey Kairi! You just going to keep staring blankly ahead or are you going to accept a drink from Seth's fridge?" "H-Huh?" Kairi murmured in bewilderment, failing to realize that she had gotten back to Mars' chamber until just now. Looking up and to the left, Kairi sees Mew waving a couple cans of pop in front of his body by using his powers to hold them up in the air while floating in front of the open fridge.

"Oh hey, welcome back to reality. You were doing that thing again where you just stare forward without responding to my voice for a while, so I decided to check Seth's fridge in the meantime. He's literally got every type of food you could imagine in here. I don't even want to imagine the electricity bill he runs trying to keep this fridge going." Mew casually commented on while looking back at the fridge, the cold chill barely affecting him as he turned to Kairi and asked her again "So about your drink…"

"U-Um…What does he have?" Kairi asked after recovering from her brief moment of blacking out due to her memories. Mew looked at the cans and stated "Pepsi, Coke, Root Beer, a lot of your standard sodas really…" "Just throw me whatever, I don't really care too much." Kairi stated before Mew could keep listing off the options, and with a gentle thrust of his right hand forward Mew sent her a can of Pepsi from the legion and then swiped one of Sierra Mist for himself, putting the rest of the cans back in the fridge before he shuts the door and glides down to the ground.

Kairi catches the can with her right hand and states with widened eyes "You just shook the can up. I'm going to get sprayed with soda the moment I pop the lid." Mew takes the lid off his can with the releasing hiss being made while stating "Not at all, I controlled the pressure inside of the can to-" Kairi just sighed before he finished talking, stating to him in a rather uncaring tone "…I'm not even surprised at this point. Is there ANYTHING you can't do with your powers?"

Mew lifted his eyes up in thought before replying with a gesture forward of the hand that holds the soda can "I can't move the moon." Kairi lifted her eyebrows up and said "Seriously? That's your limit?" After he takes a sip of his pop Mew casually told her "Not so much my limit…It's more like that was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about what I can't do. I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff my powers are limited to doing."

"Yeah but to have come with up using them to stop sodas from fizzing over when you can open a can? You must lead a pretty boring life if you have time to come up with that…" Kairi says before popping the can's lid off, while Mew says to her nonchalantly "Hey now, I'd say it's an inventive lifestyle I lead. But now that I've let you have those remarks, it's time to focus entirely on you through the rest of our little break."

"Like I said back on Mars…Joy…" Kairi lets out an exasperated sigh before she prepares to go sit down. However she is met with some resistance via Mew creating a pocket of air underneath her butt that she presses against before she goes too far. Kairi looked surprised up until she looked at Mew and got him to explain with a puzzled look in his eyes "What do you think you're doing? There'll be no sitting down right now. You're going to have to be pretty active, hence why I offered you a soda to give you some quick sugar."

With her right eyebrow raised as she gives a quick roll of her eyes, Kairi glances away from Mew and said "Fine, what do you want?" After raising a small pillar of rock from the ground for him to lean back against, Mew points his soda can forward at Kairi and remarks "After fighting you directly and watching you fight two times after, I've got quite a bit to say about your battle style, and considering the enemies are likely going to get tougher from here on out I think it's better to address this now rather than wait for you to make a costly mistake."

"I've been trained in the Aurian Offensive Style, and I will have you know that I have almost fully mastered it." Kairi replied brashly while crossing her arms, and Mew nodded his head twice and said with intrigue and sarcasm "Offensive Style…Ok, please explain to an ignorant soul like me just what that is." Looking a bit smug, Kairi explained "It's a battle style where one takes their aura and uses it to augment their body and weaponry for a boost in strength."

"Like how you wrap your staff in aura and then form spikes from it to increase your attack power and range? Ok, that makes sense, now how about any other battle styles they teach you?" Mew asked after quickly thinking about what he heard, and Kairi said "In total there are four…Offensive, Defensive, Projectile, and Bodily. But what does it matter? I chose Offensive Style and nothing else." "You probably should've considered taking up some of the Defensive Style teachings as well." Mew remarked right away.

"What are you talking about now? Offensive Style helps me overpower my enemies. Isn't being stronger than your opponent key to winning a battle?" Kairi bluntly said, showing confusion over what Mew was insinuating. Mew nodded his head twice and before stating "You aren't exactly wrong there. But a battle is about two forces going against one another, and that is offense and defense. I'll try and be as simple with my explanation as I can considering our time limits…"

Mew put his soda can atop the rock pillar and then folded his arms together, telling Kairi while he closed his eyelids "There are a few ways a battle can go down. Offense vs. Offense, Offense vs. Defense, Defense vs. Defense, and in rare occasions one's Offense can act as a means of Defense. Either way, Defense is a very crucial part of a battle." "I fail to see how." Kairi replied sarcastically, followed by Mew telling her "Well I'll be pretty honest, I guess it'd make sense for you not to understand this at first…And I'll explain to you why that is."

Raising his right pointer finger up, Mew went on to explain with an imitation of a teacher's voice "I've come to learn over the years that not everyone's attack, defense and speed are the same, even with those who are matched perfectly with their power levels. Take for example the two of us. I have a greater offense, but you have a better natural defense then I do. As for speed, I have no idea there and it doesn't matter right now. To compensate for my lower defense, I play smart with my powers to protect myself."

Opening his eyelids, Mew looks at Kairi from head to toe and states with a hesitant smirk "You kind of…don't." "What? But if my defense if higher than yours, why would I need to care about utilizing the Defensive Style?" Mew gestured his right pointer finger out and stated to Kairi "The teacher is explaining things, please withhold comments until necessary. Now then, while it is true that you have a naturally strong defense…That only seems to work when you aren't taken by surprise, the moment you do your defenses are even weaker than mine. Or so I've noticed."

He then gestured out to give Kairi the approval to talk, and she went on to say with a flustered expression "Well of course my defenses go down when I'm surprised. Why wouldn't they?" "You bring up a good point Kairi. But this is also a problem I have with your fighting style. You lack compensation for your shortcomings." Mew states with some bluntness in his voice, and an offended Kairi turns red in the face slightly before telling him off with "S-Shortcomings? Like what?!"

"Your attacks have a large range to them, but you deal entirely in physical combat and have no projectiles for opponent that are farther away than your staff can reach. And predictably, trying to extend the range of your staff with aura is easy to see coming. Also, because of how you tend to hold your staff, you leave yourself vulnerable to close-ranged attacks, something Mars even with his inexperience knew to take advantage of. However, if the Defensive Style works as I imagine, then you'll be able to cover yourself regardless of how close your opponents get."

Once Mew's explanation was at an end, Kairi said with a coy expression "I'd like to see what you THINK you know about our battle styles." Mew shrugs and states "It's not that hard considering you gave me the names. But seriously, Defensive Style is all about using aura to augment the defenses of your body. So barriers, suits of armor, stuff like that." Kairi blinked a couple times in surprise, leading to Mew looking at her with a smile and saying "Before we begin your lesson though, there's one important thing we still have to discuss. In order to best utilize defenses, you need to focus on an opponent's energy."

"…I can't do that." Kairi whispered while hiding her mouth behind her folded arms, but Mew was wise enough to know what she said and quickly told her "I know you can't sense people's energy. If you did you wouldn't have that difficult of a time defeating Venus. But honestly, I can help you pretty quickly with that." Mew then raised his right pointer finger up and created a small fireball, holding it out in front of him and stating with a warm tone of voice "This fireball is infused with my elemental energy. Really, you could also argue that some of my aura lies within it…Just focus on the fireball, relax your mind, and you'll be able to feel my energy in a matter of seconds."

"Hmph, you really think it's that easy?" Kairi says, and Mew told her with an urging tone "You haven't even tried yet." He then nudged the fireball a little closer to Kairi, and with a sigh Kairi closes her eyelids and tries to remember exactly where the fireball was so she could focus on it right as Mew suggested she do. To her surprise, she feels something warm coming from the area where the fireball was. It wasn't the heat of the fire though, but rather the energy radiating from within it. In the darkness of her sight she also saw the wavy red aura from within the fireball, and immediately upon seeing that she widens her eyes open and looks very surprised by what she saw.

Mew could tell that she was successful though because of her surprised expression, and said upon dispelling the fireball "Knew you could do it." "I-I saw the aura of your fireball while my eyes were closed…" Kairi commented while still keeping her arm extended out, and Mew tilted his head, finding himself enveloped with curiosity as he mentioned "Interesting…So Aurians have the ability to see aura even when their eyes are closed. Well, I'll keep that in the back of my head for later, right now it's time to truly begin your lesson."

Mew finally pulls himself away from the stone pillar and puts it into the ground, cracking his knuckles by pressing his fingers against his open palms before he says to Kairi "Remember what you sensed in that fireball and try to focus on me. I'll be keeping my strength to a minimum but my speed at maximum. If you manage to hold back just one of my punches by placing your aura on the spot of your body where I will attack, then you pass." Mew then put a little bit of fire around his body and had a serious expression on his face, showing Kairi that she could not take this matter lightly.

"You can't be serious." Kairi said, leading to Mew remarking confidently "Focus. I know you can do it. Have genuine confidence in yourself instead of arrogance." Mew then went off at full speed, disappearing from Kairi's sight due to how fast he was going. He sped around the room to avoid running into Kairi until he was ready to attack, with Kairi spinning her head around in confusion at first until Mew suddenly punches her on the right side of her body and speeds off before she could react. It was a light punch as he said it would be, but she still was pushed in the direction of the punch.

This disrupted her concentration a bit, just enough to allow Mew to go in for another punch on the center of her back. The wind that Mew kicks up as he runs also blows the back of Kairi's hairs to the front of her face, leading to her being distracted even further. "Ugh, this is annoying…" Kairi states as she tries to get the hairs out of her eyes with a sway of her right hand, but Mew quickly uses the wind from his speed to push them back again to make a point. This just furthered Kairi's annoyance, but at the same time it just motivated her to show Mew that she was capable of and teach HIM a lesson for once.

As such, Kairi closed her eyes while Mew punched her in the right knee. After regaining her balance Kairi tried to take Mew's advice and focus on the energy he emitted from his body. In the process of doing so she gets punched in the back again, but while she's hit she feels two thin vibrations of red aura riding across the back of her body. _"It's him…I can feel his presence…" _Kairi thought to herself, and in a matter of seconds she began to see the blur of a human's frame made of aura through the darkness of her sealed vision.

With Mew's aura as a guideline, Kairi took one more punch to her stomach, which caused her to lurch forward a bit and disrupt her sight. Kairi took this to mean Mew knew she was catching on to where he was at, and with a bit of smile she figured out then and there where Mew was going to strike next. With that in mind, Kairi lifted herself up and concentrated on her back, specifically near the center of it as she felt Mew's right fist going towards that part. Placing a thick layer of aura there, Kairi catches Mew's punch and doesn't feel a thing, much to her delight.

Mew paused in the air and prepared to lower himself down with a satisfied look on his face, but then Kairi did something he didn't expect and turned around to quickly throw a quick punch right into Mew's face. Mew's skin is crunched inward a bit as Kairi puts a lot of strength into the blow, and a moment later he is sent flying back for a few seconds until his body lands and slides along the ground. Kairi smirked at her successful attack, telling Mew straight-up in a humored tone that "You let your guard down!"

After a few seconds of lying back first against the ground, Mew sits himself upright and has a bit of blood leaking from his nose, but he simple brushes it off using his sleeve while keeping an amused smile on his face and telling Kairi "I'm going to let that punch slide, you did a good job of responding to my movements and counterattacking when I let my guard down." Mew then stood upright while Kairi realized that her punch would have resulted in her getting some blood on her knuckles, and she quickly raises it up to shake it off before it dries.

Mew makes the process go by faster thanks to using a spray of water on her hand to get it off, leading to him then stating as he walks back to where Kairi was at "You passed the lesson, that's all that matters at the end of the day. Now we move on to your next one." Kairi looked at Mew and said "You seriously aren't annoyed I punched you? What about the rules you made?" Mew shrugged the question off and pointed out to her "Like you said, the rules are pretty much pointless. Besides, you made a good move by punching me."

"…Hmph, then what is my next lesson going to be?" Kairi inquired, but Mew gestured towards himself with one hand and told her "What are you going to say first?" Kairi turned red for a moment and then folded her arms together in front of her chest, telling Mew while glancing to the side "T-Thank you for telling me how to protect myself."

"Dunno why you are so hesitant sometimes to show appreciation." Mew says while scratching the back of his head, and Kairi whispered without Mew hearing him "You're the first person to show me kindness in a long while…" "Are you trying to say something?" Mew remarked with a nonchalant grin on his face.

Kairi bluntly remarks as she turns to look at Mew "It's none of your business! So what's the next lesson?!" Mew waggled his left pointer finger in the air and stated "First, I think it's time for a little treat. I'll be right back, I saw some desserts up at the freezer." He then moved open the door with his powers and leaped off the ground, flying to the very top where a very cold breeze came out. Mew then sat himself down on the very large frost covered shelf and grabbed hold of a piece of cake that had been kept up here, stating down to Kairi "Come up here and have some dessert with me. The freezer is loaded!"

Kairi walked over to the bottom of the fridge and looked up, scoffing once before she leaped up and tried to grab onto one of the shelves, but suddenly her grip slipped and she fell back onto the ground specifically on her butt. She released a cute sounding "Ooof!" while Mew said to her from above "You should probably try flying! I think the shelves are very slippery!" Kairi rubbed her rear with her right hand as she stood up, stating to Mew with frustration "You totally covered the shelves in ice!"

"Maybe. I never exactly checked them out. All you have to do is fly up anyways, it's not a big deal." Mew said casually while eating into the red velvet cake he had in his hand. Kairi exclaimed after fighting some frustratingly difficult hesitation that led to her face becoming incredibly red "I-I can't fly like you can!" Mew thus placed the piece of cake down beside himself and laid the hand atop his legs before stating to Kairi "Yeah, I know. And I'm honestly greatly curious about that. I'd think that flying would be a natural part of an Aurian's training."

"N-No! Aurians aren't usually trained to fly. It's a rare art…" Kairi explained, and this just brought more questions to Mew's mind regarding Aurian culture. "Rare art? …Let me guess, it's because then it'd be easier for people to escape Gravitus' control?" "I guess so…I never really questioned it, since flying always seemed like a myth, but you do it like it's second nature to you." Kairi said, sounding the tiniest bit jealous of Mew's flight.

Mew waved his hand down and told her with a smile on his face "It only became second nature to me once I tested it out enough." "What, didn't you gain the ability to fly once you became the Elemental Overlord?" Kairi said in a tone of surprise, and Mew shrugged a bit before looking off to the side a couple inches and telling her "Actually, I've had the ability to fly even before I became the Elemental Overlord."

"But you were just a normal human back then." Kairi pointed out, and Mew replied humbly "And I'm still a normal human now. My powers haven't changed what I am inside. I accept the namesake of my predecessor, not the label of god he carried with him. Anyways, that's not the subject at the moment. You want to know how I learned how to fly?" Sighing, Kairi said with a closed eyed expression "Yeah, I guess I do…You'd tell me regardless of my answer anyways."

Mew raised a pointer finger up and explained "I was inspired by fiction. Call me a naïve child for this line of thinking, but I thought that if I applied what some of the heroes in those books and video games did to myself, I'd be able to fly all on my own. So I would stand outside my house and focus on my body, imagining that I was digging deep down into my own energy and expelling it to push myself away from the ground. If this world wasn't as fantastic as it was, this whole story would make me sound incredibly stupid, but sure enough I ended up levitating off the ground, leading to me eventually learning how to fly. Its one of my fondest memories, really."

Kairi, with arms folded below her chest the whole time Mew spoke, blinked twice in surprise and said "So that's all you have to do to fly? Just focus on your inner energy and push it out?" Mew nodded his head and told Kairi "Think of it as your skin releasing hundreds of tiny streams of energy all at once. I think anyone with energy within them can fly, it's just that the weaker you are the less amount of time you'll be able to fly. I know I wasn't able to fly for very long at first. But yeah, ever since that day I knew I didn't live in some ordinary world, which is why it wasn't all to surprising when Mario came to my house via a portal and told me about the Elemental Overlord's prophecy."

Kairi's eyes immediately lit up at that point and she looked straight up and said "Bullshit. You can't actually be talking about THAT Mario." "Sure I am, is it really that surprising?" Mew said as though it was just the most casual topic to bring up, and with a bit of a smile Kairi called Mew out by saying "Liar, you're just trying to make your origin story sound more amazing. Next you'll tell me he was speaking in complete sentences."

"Yeah, that pretty much caught me off guard when he did that." Mew said with a laid-back expression, and at this point even Kairi couldn't hold back her agape mouth. "The worlds we read in books and mangas, watched in shows and animes, and played in video games are all out there in the universe somewhere. And considering the amount of energy you have, you could go out into space yourself and try to find them all." Mew said while starting to kick his legs against the front of the frozen shelf, a hand raised up to the ceiling to better express what he was talking about.

"…All those worlds are real…? Heheh, I did enjoy fictional tales back then, didn't I? …What am I saying?" Kairi shook her head quickly upon realizing that she was thinking happily about stuff that shouldn't matter to her now. She was getting wrapped up in the worlds of fantasy she had left behind just because Mew caught her off-guard with one famous plumber's name. As such, she quickly looked up at Mew with a focused expression only to see him looking down at her with a grin for what can be assumed was the last few seconds.

Kairi was a bit embarrassed that she was probably heard mumbling, but with a fist clenched Kairi stated "I'll ask about your silly origin later, right now I'll give flying a shot, ok?" "That is the point of this lesson, yeah. Make it up to me, and I'll try to find something sweet for you in the meantime." Mew said, choosing to stand up afterwards and go deeper into the freezer while having faith that Kairi would make it up soon enough. Left alone for now, Kairi takes her clenched fist and holds it close to her chest, focusing once more on the inner energy within to do what Mew suggested.

After a few seconds of concentration, Kairi's body suddenly felt lighter than she did before. Her heart skipped a beat until she opened her eyelids and looked down, seeing that her feet were five feet off the ground already. Her surprise broke her concentration and made her land back on the ground, but now she had an idea of what flight was like. Laying her hand out openly against her chest, Kairi thought to herself with a bright smile _"Oh my god…I actually flew. Hehehe, that felt so amazing."_

Kairi then continued to smile before she tried to go for another attempt at flying, rising up even higher than she did before until she eventually got to the freezer shelf. The very moment she floated on level with the shelf, Mew was there with his right arm extended while his other one was hidden behind his back. He gestured out with the arm to invite Kairi to grab onto the hand, and with some hesitation she brought her right arm up to lay her hand atop Mew's own.

As she does so, she feels a bit of warmth welling up inside of her, her heart pumping a bit as she was slowly drawn in closer to the shelf. Once her feet were on the ground, Kairi was fully expecting Mew to go in for a kiss as his "something sweet", and maybe it's because she was so swept up in the happiness of being able to fly that she was almost willing to let that come to pass. But instead of getting a kiss, Kairi watched as Mew took his left hand out from behind and hovered a few different cupcakes in front of his smiling face.

"Strawberry, banana or blueberry? Which one do you want?" Mew inquired casually as he let go of Kairi's hand, leading to the warmth quickly flushing out of her body as she murmurs in a disappointed tone "Um…I'll take the banana one." She reaches out and grabs the levitating cupcake from Mew's grasp, with Mew taking the blueberry one for himself and discarding the strawberry one back into the freezer before stating to Kairi "See? As a wise green midget once said…'There is no try, only do'"

His impersonation of the person in question left a lot to be desired, but Kairi giggled at it while holding her cupcake in front of her lips. Mew then took a bite of his cupcake and said in a muffled tone "But seriously, great job. How did it feel to fly for the first time?" Kairi remarked in response happily "It was great! I felt so light in the air it was like I was a balloon!" Kairi then takes a bite of her cupcake while Mew moves his around with some subtle finger movements while commenting in an intrigued tone "I never would've expected the battle-hardened girl to use a childish thing like a balloon as a point of comparison."

This immediately makes Kairi nearly cough up her cupcake in surprise, mostly in regards to what she had just said. She quickly swallowed her bite and looked Mew straight in the eyes with a firm glare, telling him bluntly "I-I'm allowed to use whatever terms I want!" "Yeah I suppose I was a little out of line with that. You completed your lessons, and as your senpai I can't help but feel glad knowing you learned so quickly." Mew said in a fond tone.

However, Kairi had to ruin the moment a bit by saying "Senpai? What makes you think you're my senpai? We may have been born in the same year, but that doesn't mean the same day or month." Mew commented "Fair point. When were you born then? Cause if I go first you'll try and make something up to beat me." "Hmph, I feel pretty confident that I don't need to do that anyways. I was born on May 26th." Kairi said while folding her arms together.

"Hmmm…Impressive, but I was born on April 7th. So I'm about a month and a half older than you." Mew said, and knowing all too well that he was not a liar Kairi turned to the right and scoffed before stating "Damn it, you are technically my senpai…But I'm not going to start calling you that." "Hehe, that's not a problem at all." Mew said in a humored tone before going back to eating his cupcake.

The two then just ate their cupcakes fully, and once they had cleaned them off they tossed the wrappers off the freezer and floated down to the ground. Mew shut the doors to the fridge and turned to Kairi, telling her happily "Alright, you'll be glad to know we won't be spending our breaks with training ever again. I taught what I needed to. Now it's up to you to learn in your next battles." Kairi said with a confident grin "Heh, piece of cake."

"…Though admittedly, I'll be fighting Jupiter next. You can tackle Saturn." Mew said while scratching the side of his head, and with Kairi patting Mew once on the right shoulder she began to walk towards the stairs while stating "Then what are we waiting for?" Mew just shrugged his shoulders once and folded his arms together before the two of them advanced to the staircase that would take them to their next opponent, Aurian Jupiter.

_Next Time: The Hard-Hitting Brawl_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The Hardest Worker**

With their little training session out of the way, Mew and Kairi climbed the staircase to the next chamber for Aurian Jupiter. It was a quick climb, considering there was really no need to discuss anything after their break. At the top of the staircase the two of them came across a rather simple environment. The walls and shelves were lined with various weights, with a few exercise machines spread around to help lift some of these weights up. Mew folded his arms together and said "Huh…Guess Jupiter is a weight-lifter. Must have borrowed some machines off of Seth too."

"That's really weird…" Kairi says with a little bit of disgust in her voice. Mew glanced over his shoulder and asked "What? What's wrong with wanting to lift weights?" "Too much muscle mass looks disgusting on anyone. And if this Planetary Aurian has been training with weights for as long as they've been around…Uuuughh." Kairi has a bit of a chill down her spine as she tries to think about an overly ripped person.

Mew then turned around and looks at her fully, saying with a smile "Oh come now, that's a pretty quick judgment call to make. Tell you what, I'll take a look at the weights and tell you how many pounds Jupiter lifts, and that'll determine how ripped they are. For all you know, they could lift just small weights to keep their figure up." "Alright, humor me Mew. Go right ahead and check the weights." Kairi said while gesturing forward with her right hand.

Mew nodded his head and then turned back around, walking over to the closest set of weights all lined up on an incredibly thick rack. He then takes the lightest weight from the rack and lifts it up, feeling a bit of pressure in his muscles as he does a quick flex with them. "Hmmm…Doesn't feel too bad. Lets check the num-" In the middle of speaking he flips the weight around and finds his eyes voluntarily widening in absolute disbelief as he sees the rather large number of one-million tons on the side.

Mew's expression becomes dumbfounded as he sucks his own lips in a bit and quickly places the weight back into the rack, folding his arms together as he finds himself unable to understand just how any of this was possible. "I know I can lift that much…But to think that this is just Jupiter's lightest weight…" Mew mumbles to himself while Kairi walks up to him from behind and says after poking him once in the back of the neck "So what's the number? Come on, tell me."

Mew turns around and with the images of a building-sized person composed of muscle mass refusing to leave his mind Mew finds himself acting awkward for once as he struggles to mention to Kairi "W-Well…You see, it's nothing big…Just one-million tons…" He quickly said that last part with a quiet gasp while averting his gaze to the right, but Kairi caught him and said with her mouth slightly agape "O-O-One million tons? That's ludicrous, that is so incredibly ludicrous…"

At a loss for words, Kairi lays a hand against her forehead and shakes it slowly back and forth, but then she comes to a realization and looks up at Mew past her hand and said "Y…You just lifted that weight like it was nothing though. You barely have any muscle mass either, so I guess Jupiter could just be an incredibly strong person without necessarily having insane looking muscles." "Hmmm, I suppose that's a good point there Kairi." Mew remarked after blinking twice, the period of time spent doing so getting rid of the imagery of those incredibly ripped people in his mind.

"But yeah, I guess speculating appearances isn't going to mean much. We should just going into the portal before we spend too long talking again." Mew said to get the two of them focused back on their mission. Kairi pointed out however as she pulled her hand away from her face "Wait a second though, we're going to JUPITER next. You know, the planet with the highest gravity and littlest land mass? How the HELL is a battle there going to even work?"

Mew paused his advance towards the portal and looked up while deep in thought, saying not long after "You make another good point…Yeah, I doubt the portal would send us directly to Jupiter, that'd be pretty unfair to both the Planetary Aurian and us…We'll probably end up fighting on one of Jupiter's 67 moons." "Oh yeah, forgot that there's like that many other locations for us to fight. Then again, you have to wonder why we didn't go to Venus' moon…" Kairi remarked, and with an awkward scratch of the back of his head Mew pointed out "Ummm, because Venus doesn't have a single moon. I'm guessing they don't teach astronomy that much in your classes?"

"…I-I just forgot about that, don't accuse me of being stupid because of that, Mew." Kairi said with a little bluntness mixed in with her embarrassed as her face turned red outside Mew's line of sight. Mew just chuckled at Kairi and told her "Awww, you know I'm just giving you a hard time. Lets get a move on." He then waved his hand forward and began advancing towards the portal, with Kairi folding her arms together and letting out a sigh before following Mew through the portal.

By now the time-space jumps had become natural for Kairi to experience, but this jump went on just a second longer than usual because the two of them were going further out past Earth than ever before. Once the jump was finished and the two heroes landed outside of the portal, they landed atop a surface filled with rocks and ice, an abundance of craters spread around unlike anything seen on the other planets thus far. But this was no mere planet, obviously, but rather one of the moon's orbiting Jupiter just as Mew predicted they would land on.

After a careful observation of the moon's surface, Mew looked up and to the right and saw the gas giant planet known as Jupiter "staring" at them both from far away with it's central red "eye". Even thousands upon thousand of miles away from the planet, the two of them could slightly feel the pull of gravity coming from it, and Mew shivered at the thought of getting any closer to the planet. He was perfectly content staying on this moon, saying to Kairi as he puts on a nervous smile "You know…I'm perfectly fine with some planets not being inhabitable."

"I-It's definitely colder here than it was on Mars…" Kairi says with a shiver in her voice, and to help her out as she wraps her arms close to her body for warmth Mew snaps his fingers and creates a warm veil of air around her body to protect her. Kairi immediately feels results as the chill leaves her body, and she turns to Mew and hesitantly says "T-Thanks…" Mew nodded his head to accept the appreciation and then looked down at the planet's surface, commenting after a few seconds of humming "This must be Callisto…"

"I honestly thought for a moment that we were sent to Neptune, but that would've ruined the order. So now that we're here, how are we going to find Aurian Jupiter?" Kairi inquired, and Mew pointed up while stating "I wouldn't worry too much about that, they'll probably be coming here in a matter of seconds." Kairi looked up at that moment and saw a figure moving fast through the depths of space unimpeded by it's pressure. The figure was rapidly descending towards Callisto, and a mere second before they landed they flipped themselves around and crashed down hard on the surface, applying only enough force to crack the ground a few feet around them.

The person was kneeled down with their head hung forward and one hand laid against the ground, so all Mew and Kairi could see of them at the moment was their long red hair that was tied into a ponytail and a navy-blue rugged scarf wrapped around their neck. The person then lifted their head up and revealed they were a female thanks to their face, which had bright blue eyes and a pumped-up grin on her normally sculpted head. The person then ripped her hand from the ground and stood upright in an instant, showing that she had a pretty well-defined muscle tone across her entire body that fit well with her curved frame and six-pack abs. She has light pink-orange colored skin, tons of tape around her hands, a black sports bra for her solid average breasts, and blue jean-shorts that were clearly fitted to be bigger than what would be normal considering the muscle mass in her legs and thighs. Surprisingly, she doesn't wear shoes.

The girl was pretty tall as well, considering from afar she didn't have to lift her head up even an inch to look Mew straight in the eyes, and as she laid her left hand against her thigh and thrust her right fist out she exclaimed in a very eager, youthful tone with a hint of a southern accent "Welcome to my domain, bitches! So you two must be the ones who've been defeating all of my allies so far!" Mew waved his right hand out towards Kairi and said with a nonchalant smile "That'd be us alright. And you must be Aurian Jupiter." Jupiter swung her arm out to the side before stating with a smile "You're damn right I am! So what're names?"

"I'm Mew, and she's Kairi. We're on our way to take down Gravitus, but we first have to defeat five more Planetary Aurians." Mew stated happily, and Kairi raised her right hand up and waved at Jupiter while nervously stating "H-Hi there…" since she was still intimidated by the muscles Jupiter had, even though she was definitely not as monstrous as she expected her to be. Jupiter punched a fist into her hand and grinned energetically, telling her two guests "I'm not stupid you know, I know how this whole shtick works. So, you think you can tackle Lord Gravitus, eh?"

"W-We wouldn't have come this far unless we were!" Kairi said with a slight stutter in her voice, and Jupiter blinked a couple times before pointing forward with her right finger and saying "…Hey, are you intimidated by me or something?" Mew gestured out to the right at Kairi casually and answers for her, saying to Jupiter "She's just got a problem with women that have large muscles. Don't know why, it's just the result of hard work."

Jupiter then lays her hands into her shorts and leans forward, grinning brightly at Mew before telling him "I like the way you think. I can tell just by looking at you that you are incredibly strong as well." Mew folded his arms against his chest and said in an appreciative manner "Thank you very much. But surely you have more logic to this than just my looks." Jupiter lifted herself up and scratched the side of her head while smiling brightly, telling Mew nonchalantly "Well to be perfectly honest, you don't look like anything special. Your body is average sized and all…But you DID get past Aurian Earth, so obviously you must be something special."

"I AM the Elemental Overlord, after all." Mew commented with a tiny bit of arrogance in his voice, and Jupiter snapped her fingers in front of her chest and remarked "Well well, so you are. Excellent! This is going to be the greatest fight of my life! You won't believe how hard I've trained to face people like you!" Mew then said with a bit of praise in his voice "You know though, we did also beat Mars, doesn't that matter to you? He wasn't a slouch."

"Eh, that doesn't really matter." Jupiter was blunt in her nonchalance as she turns her head and scratches the right side of it, and with what Mars said earlier it could easily be inferred that the two must have some personal history. But Jupiter discarded the topic by quickly looking at Mew and saying "So yeah, I've decided I want to fight you! I'd probably consider fighting your girlfriend if she had a little more confidence in herself, but meh…"

As Jupiter shrugged an arm up beside her face and spoke so quickly those words, Kairi suddenly widened her eyes and found her face flushed with an embarrassing shade of red while Mew let out a very impressed whistle at Jupiter's boldness. "G-G-Girlfriend?! What gives you the right to accuse me of being that?!" Kairi exclaimed before Mew said "You're pretty confident in yourself to make such a comment, Jupiter."

Jupiter looked surprised and said "You aren't a couple? Huh, then why are you both here? We've never had two people going through the Planetary Gauntlet at the same time before." "Well there's a first time for everything." Mew said, and Jupiter nodded her head fiercely once and exclaimed "Like fighting a god!"

She then leaned forward slightly and grabbed onto the back of her scarf, pulling out the end of it so it could wave out past the back of her body. She then held her fists out a bit and cracked the knuckles, preparing herself for the heat of battle with a big, almost childish grin. Mew looks at Kairi and says "You might want to be careful here Kairi. This is definitely going to be a hard-hitting battle." "Yeah. Hit her one hard in the face for calling me your girlfriend!" Kairi exclaimed with a firm, angered glare in her eyes.

Kairi then flipped Jupiter off real quick from under her folded arms and turned around to put some distance away from the start of the battle. Jupiter lifted her eyebrows and said in confusion "Boy, what's her problem? I was just joking around." "Yeah yeah, I'll get to that eventually. Before we begin though, couple questions…First off, what's your name?" Mew inquired quickly while gesturing a pointer finger at Jupiter.

Jupiter replied energetically as she punched her fists out "Beat me and I'll tell you." Mew shrugged and said "Fair enough, but I'm really wondering how you got racks strong enough to hold all those wei-" "HEY!" Jupiter suddenly blurted out at the highest possible volume, surprising Mew and making his heart pump rapidly as he stays frozen in place. Jupiter then lifted her eyes up a bit and said "It's rude to keep a woman waiting when they are itching for a fight."

Mew folded his arms together and nodded his head, telling Jupiter "Hmm, can't say I've heard that before. But then again, you seem to be a woman who enjoys a good fight." He then held his right hand out as though ready to summon his sword, but he went slowly so he could stall out the conversation. Jupiter was having none of that though as she stated to Mew "I hope this casual conversing means you aren't taking me seriously. I've trained hard to face guys like you, don't think I'm a slouch in any sense of the word!"

"…Fine, I guess enough with the formalities then." Mew said, and with his right arm extended out all the way he called forth the flames ready to summon his sword. However, Jupiter smirked as her body was surrounded by a white aura and she suddenly ran forward, tearing up the moon's surface with her bare foot while defying logic and kicking a powerful gale behind her until she stopped in front of Mew and threw her right fist directly into Mew's chest while he was in the middle of summoning his sword.

Mew as shocked as could be when for the first time ever someone had actually launched an attack on him before he brought out his sword, and as his mouth was held agape he twitched and gasped for a few seconds before Jupiter's punch launches him away while the gale from earlier catches up and throws debris out on both sides of Jupiter's body. Mew flies backwards for a couple seconds before Jupiter sprints forward and gets behind him, slamming her elbow behind her to strike his backside with enough force to make him lurch backwards in an arch while a shockwave of raw power rips into the surface of the moon, forming a crater that drags Jupiter and Mew down as Jupiter keeps her elbow pressed into Mew's body for a couple more seconds.

Once the crater was deep enough, Jupiter pushes Mew away from her elbow so he can go flying right into the side of the crater, his body colliding with it and bounding up the jagged slant until he landed back on the surface of the moon and started tumbling for a few feet. But after the surprise of Jupiter's first attack had worn off Mew breaks out of his roll, catching himself and landing perfectly on his feet as he skids back and looks up right as Jupiter leaps out of the crater and pulls back on her right fist ready to go in for a mighty punch.

Mew lifts himself up halfway and braces himself against the ground with rocky supports around his legs as he holds his hands up front and center, using one as a support in the back of the other and putting all of his strength into catching Jupiter's punch the moment she thrusts it forward. When the blow collides, Mew prevents the disruption of the planet's surface with his powers but still feels a little vibration inside of his body. He wraps his fingers around Jupiter's fist and holds her at bay while she floats in mid-air with a grin of heavy enjoyment on her face. Though Mew held back Jupiter's punch, she still momentarily felt as though he had been punched in the face by half of the strength Jupiter was currently exerting.

"Hehehe!" Jupiter chuckled with innocent delight before all of a sudden Mew started to feel a lot more pressure on his hands and body. The supports around his legs were cracking, and it was clear that Jupiter's strength was increasing. _"What? I thought she was already using her full strength!" _Mew thought to himself, but then he looked at Jupiter's arm and noticed something very interesting happening. Her arm was growing in size, her muscles bulging out slowly until the limb was double the size it was before.

Before Mew was overwhelmed by Jupiter's strength and his grip was loosened around her enlarged fist, Mew took her and spun his body around to quickly throw her against the ground. Mew then lets go of Jupiter's arm as it reverts back to normal at her command and leaps back, saying as he takes a moment to catch his breath "Can't say I saw this coming…Are you some kind of mutant?" Jupiter spins herself around, tearing a circle into the planet's surface before she springs right onto her feet and says with her energetic smile "Nope! I'm just a really hard worker!"

Jupiter immediately sprung at Mew while talking and threw her right fist down as Mew was forced to lift his left hand up to block it. Mew once more felt himself being punched in the face despite this, and he began to suspect that Jupiter's aura was responsible for this feeling. Before Mew could clasp onto Jupiter's hand she pulled back and spun once around, throwing a kick into the side of Mew's body while her leg muscles were enlarged like her arm was moments ago. Even with enough time to put steel on the side of his body to cushion some of the kick, Mew is still budged along the ground to the left as he grimaces a bit in pain.

He retaliated to Jupiter's attack by swerving to the right a bit and thrusting his hands out to send a very hot fireball at her as big as her body. But upon landing on the ground Jupiter crosses her arms and enlarges them both to double their size so she could block the fireball with ease. As the flames disperse around her Jupiter spread her shrinking arms and grinned, but then Mew knew to take advantage of her being distracted to get right in her face and throw a flaming uppercut right into her chin while standing sideways.

Jupiter's head was knocked back a couple inches, but she quickly recovered and responded by thrusting her head down and ramming it right into Mew's own. But Mew figured this would happen and thus was ready to meet her force by butting their heads together and pressing as hard as they can. As their stubborn foreheads press together, Jupiter smirks and fiercely widens her eyes, enjoying the battle to the best of her ability. Mew smiles as well, but that's because he had a plan up his sleeve for this situation.

With his right hand still out from his uppercut, Mew quickly goes for Jupiter's neck and wraps the back of his elbow around it, hoping to pull her down to the ground eventually. But Jupiter responds by bringing both of her arms out and grabbing Mew by the sides of his body. She then pulls her body back all the way while picking Mew off the ground and piledrives him headfirst behind her, burrowing his head underneath the surface of the moon and up-heaving large chunks of the ground in the process. As Mew takes a heavy blow to his skull from that piledrive, he thinks to himself _"Ok…Time to try something else."_

With his arms partially buried under the surface of the moon, Mew waits until Jupiter has let go of him and lifted herself upright before he quickly digs into the moon with his bare hands to get underground. Though the blow to his head did dizzy him, he was able to focus enough to keep tunneling away underground. While Mew was making his next move, Jupiter turned around and noticed the start of his tunnel as she leaned forward, and with an intrigued grin she laid a hand against her fist and cracked the knuckles while saying "Alright…What are you trying here?"

She anticipated Mew's next move, but she did not have to wait long as the ground trembled below and her body was lifted up thanks to a large area of the moon's surface being separated into platforms thanks to Mew's underground efforts. Jupiter rose high up along with the rest of the platforms, and she quickly ran to the edge of the one she was on and looked down to see Mew standing at the bottom of the platforms while his forehead bleeding slightly from the earlier blow.

Mew finally had a chance to draw his sword out at this point and upon doing so he swung it up in an arc and sent an explosive wave of flames straight towards Jupiter's platform. The attack connects and blows the platform up, but not before Jupiter leaps off and dives straight down towards Mew while laying both of her arms together before her face. Mew took command of some of the platforms as they continued to rise out past the moon's gravitational pull, and with yet another defiance of the laws of space he set the platforms ablaze and threw them at Jupiter like they were meteors to try and slow her down.

But Jupiter threw out swift chops on both sides of her body in timing with the meteors' approach, ripping them apart with a single attack like they were paper. She then prepared to cross her arms again, only for Mew to leap out from his platform and break away from the floatiness of space with his flight in order to charge right at Jupiter and before a downward, diagonal slash of his blade while it was on fire. For the first time in this battle, Mew is able to strike Jupiter with enough force to send her flying back, but she in turn was able to make Mew recoil back ten feet with her crossed arms.

As Mew is forced to swing his sword out to the side while letting out a "Tch!", and he watches as Jupiter slams back first against the bottom of one of the platforms and forms a rather large indent within it. Cracks spread out throughout the platform, but they don't mean anything at first for the structure of the platform until Jupiter opens her eyelids and flexes her muscles a bit which causes the entire platform to crumble apart and free her from it. She slowly drops towards another platform directly below her, but she lines herself up with where Mew was at and has another idea in mind.

Not only was Jupiter lined up with Mew, but also with another of Jupiter's moons miles away. As Mew charged at her, Jupiter bent down and laid her hands against the platform, waiting for Mew to get halfway towards her as she doubles the size of both of her legs, and then she leaps forward from the platform as fast as the fastest comet and punches Mew right in the chest before he could even react. Mew is then sent rocketing through the depths of space, with Jupiter performing a quick spin before she suddenly takes flight and pursued Mew to the next moon.

After flying through space for a good thirty seconds, Mew crash lands on the surface of Ganymede and grinds through miles of the thick ice and rock surface while gritting his teeth to bear the pain of everything his body is feeling. Once his momentum slowed down enough Mew now had to adjust himself to the greater gravitational pull this moon had while he slammed his elbow against the ground and performed a flip of his body to get out of the gargantuan trench being dug into the surface with his body, allowing him to stop the remainder of his momentum by using his flight.

By the time he recovered, Jupiter had already crash landed on the moon and was completely unimpeded by the cold temperature. She wasted no time in leaping across miles of the moon to get back over to Mew, her mighty leap putting her in the air right in front of Mew. But even with how fast things were going, Mew was beginning to understand how Jupiter's abilities worked. He had just one last test to make, and he fulfilled his goals on that end by flying backwards approximately two feet instead of taking Jupiter's punch head-on. The aura around her body extends outward half the length of her arm and just nicks Mew in the chin with a punch, and that was when Mew smiled happily.

But he had to get right back into the heat of battle as Jupiter quickly pushed herself forward with a punch from her other hand, and Mew swung his head to the left while using both of his hands to grab Jupiter's fist. He manages to avoid the extension of aura punching him in the face with this move, and while Jupiter was excited to see him catching on Mew twisted his body around while still holding onto her fist and quickly pulled her from where she floated and threw her towards the icy surface of the moon.

Jupiter spun around and landed on her feet while cracking the ground, but before she leapt up for another attack Mew dispelled his sword and quickly held his arms out, calling upon the ocean waters buried under the frigid layers to rise up and erupt in a mountain sized blast that consumed Jupiter's entire body. Mew then instantly froze all of the water with a thrust of his hands downward, trapping Jupiter inside the middle of it all. But Mew knew he wouldn't be able to hold her for long, and she even began to expand her arm muscles to crack the ice apart as he thought that.

As such, Mew pulled both of his arms back while swerving his body to the right, and charged up flames quickly and heavily between his cupped hands. The very moment Jupiter splits the ice mountain in two and punches straight up towards him, Mew thrusts both of his hands out and fires a gargantuan beam of flame from his hands that is able to consume the remains of the ice mountain and Jupiter simultaneously, and as the flames crash against the surface of the moon it boils the dormant waters underneath it in roughly two seconds.

Mew puts his all into his flames, but they are only able to slow Jupiter down instead of managing to stop her entirely. Jupiter thus breaks out of the flames face first in a matter of seconds with her hair and clothes untouched and with an energetic grin she clocks Mew right in the side of his jaw, which stops his onslaught of flames and makes the bones in his mouth crack slightly. But before she could go for a punch on the other side of his face Mew holds his right hand up and catches it, then swings his other hand out and punches Jupiter in the forehead with all his strength.

Mew could feel that slowly but surely he was hurting Jupiter with all of his attacks, it was just that she was so incredibly battle-hardened that she was able to keep going as though she was always at full strength. Mew did admire that strength she had, but only remained focused on that admiration for a moment before he let go of her fist and flew straight back to get some distance away from her. He then drew out his sword and went for an attack on her midsection.

But as his blade connected across Jupiter's skin, it amounted to nothing more than a paper cut, though Mew immediately raised his sword up and went to cut down at her body. Jupiter raised her arms up and blocked the slash by increasing her muscle mass by fifty percent. But Mew dispels his sword and steps forward so he could thrust his right fist underneath Jupiter's arms and hit her square in the abs, specifically firing off a blast of electricity into the cut he just made so he could hopefully reach her nerves.

His efforts earn him a thrust of both of Jupiter's arms into his forehead, which knocks him back a few feet and makes some blood come out again. But as Mew laid a hand on his forehead he grinned, with his efforts proving worthwhile as Jupiter stumbles back a couple feet while limping her arms down beside her body. Jupiter smiled and said "Nice move…But you think it'll keep me down for long?" Jupiter kept her arms' muscle mass increased and then sprinted right at Mew, going for a rapid series of fisticuffs his way.

Mew rapidly swings his hands up to block every attack, even if it meant taking the brunt of her aura punches in the process. It didn't matter to him at the end of the day, as he had figured Jupiter out by now. He kept his cool and took whatever punches Jupiter threw out, even as she switched things up from fisticuffs to two hard-hitting thrusts from both her arms. The impacts of her fists with Mew's palms do push him backwards across the ice despite his resistance, and the ice itself was shattering apart below Jupiter's feet.

Mew did have one concern as he continued to mount his defense, and that was _"This battle is tearing apart the poor moons…" _It was a rather odd concern to make in the midst of battle, but he is distracted enough by it that Jupiter is able to thrust a hand through Mew's swinging arms and grabs onto his face. Jupiter immediately slams Mew against the ground and shrinks her arms down back to normal mass and exclaims enthusiastically "You and I are going for a ride!"

She then triples the muscle mass of her legs and leans forward to keep Mew pressed against the moon's surface, sprinting forward without any loss of speed as she drags Mew forward and her aura flares up as bright as a comet. Jupiter lifts her head up and looks towards another of the planet's moon, grinning brightly before exclaiming "Lets go! Lets go! Starlight Slipstream Beatdown!" With all of her strength, Jupiter leaps right off of Ganymede's surface and speeds right through space until she reaches the next moon, where she slams Mew against the surface and leaves a noticeable indent in place.

She then pulled Mew right out of the moon and leaped away to another one, repeating the process over and over again until she had covered sixty-six of Jupiter's moons, not once being threatened by the gravitational pull of the gargantuan planet. As she leaps from planet to planet, her aura leaves behind streaks of bright white in space like they were burning comets, and at the end of her assault Jupiter finally returns to Callisto and piledrives Mew two feet into the moon's surface.

Kairi was not far away from where Jupiter had landed, and she was nearly thrown onto her backside by the tremor Jupiter sent through the moon. Mew was greatly battered by Jupiter's assault with blood dragged out from both of his shoulders and kneecaps, but he knew his moment of victory was almost here if Jupiter is using this much effort. However, as Juipter let go of his body she shrunk her legs back to normal mass and leaped up off the moon's surface while pulling her right fist back.

All of her aura gathers back into her body, and Jupiter pools it into her right arm as she multiples her muscle mass in it not twice, not thrice, but FIVE times. Her enlarged arm glowed as bright as a dwarf star thanks to her aura, and Mew remarked to himself as he stays inside of the impact zone "O-O-Oh…" Kairi didn't have to sense Jupiter's power to realize that she'd be in trouble if she stood on the moon, so with widened eyes she leaped off and took flight a safe distance away. After pulling her right arm back for a few more seconds to ready herself Jupiter exclaimed "BUSTER MOON!"

Then came the moment of truth for this entire battle, as Jupiter thrust her fist right down into the moon's surface right down into where Mew was buried. Immediately, Jupiter's punch digs into the moon and spreads large cracks throughout the entire thing, all of them erupting with the aura Jupiter poured out until Callisto simply shatters into multiple large pieces with a resounding crack. Kairi looked on with her mouth as agape as could be, and she wondered if Mew could even survive something like that.

Jupiter, meanwhile, deflated her fight fist back to her regular muscle mass and stood herself over the large crater in the chunk of the moon she had created, finding that the chunk was just barely holding itself together. Jupiter panted a bit and hung herself forward slightly, looking down into the crater and noticing a shattered metal shell that looked like Mew's body if it was put together. Jupiter states to herself "He must have tried to defend himself…Hehehe, but to even force me to use five times my muscle mass…You were a strong opponent Mew, and I'll definitely respect that-"

Before Jupiter was finished talking, she was suddenly slammed straight in the gut by a very powerful punch, and this makes her face freeze up in complete surprise before she gets a chance to see her assailant. As Jupiter's body limps forward, it is revealed that Mew had struck her with all of his remaining strength while standing beside her, a serious but tired look on his face as he pulls his fist away from Jupiter's gut and lets her tumble down into the crater defeated. He then lifts his head up and takes a deep breath, ignoring the cracks in his bones as he sighs and leans his head back and forth.

Once he had given himself a breather, Mew turned around and leaped down into the crater to go after Jupiter, floating down as she stopped tumbling and laid on her back at the bottom of the crater near the broken metal shell Mew had used. By the time Mew had gotten down into the crater, Kairi had landed on the ground close by and looked a bit disturbed by all the blood on Mew's body as she took a quick look at him. Laying a hand close to her chin, Kairi said "Holy crap…Are you alright Mew?" Mew just shrugs as Kairi runs over to him, telling her with the most nonchalance he could muster "Oh no big deal…I just survived being slammed against sixty-seven moons of various density…Just another day in the life…"

"…I thought you said you had low defenses or something?" Kairi pointed out with a curious tilt of the head, and Mew remarked "Well yeah, my defense could be a lot better than it is at the moment, but hey, what can you do sometimes? I'll explain more once Jupiter gets back up." Mew then turns to Jupiter as Kairi said "You sure she'll be up soon? She looks pretty out to me."

"Of course she's not out of commission. Look at her, she's got like the biggest grin on her face." Mew says while gesturing down at Jupiter's body, and as Kairi leans forward she sees that very grin before her mouth suddenly opens up and Jupiter bursts into very merry laughter. Jupiter then sat herself up and kept her legs stretched out, laying her hands atop her kneecaps while giving Mew a very energetic smile and telling him "Let me tell you something Mew…You gave me the most kickass fight I've experienced in years!"

"Hehe, glad to oblige. You really did train hard to get your strength up to this level, Jupiter, and that trick of further increasing that strength by expanding your muscle mass was cool as well. How'd you accomplish that?" Mew said, and Jupiter opened her eyes but gave Mew a quick wink before explaining to him "Eh, I had a little bit of magic done to me to help me out there. Seriously, there was a time when I looked exactly like the musclebound freak Kairi there was worried about seeing. Couldn't have that freakish appearance when I got a job to commit to."

"You have a job?" Kairi inquired, and Jupiter said with a dumbfounded look on her face "No shit, I'm part of the Planetary Aurians. I'm pretty much a Galactic Cop/Superhero. I'm surprised a purebred Aurian wouldn't know that." "Don't fault her, she thought all of you were myths until today." Mew happily defended Kairi with a raise of his hand past his crossed arms.

"…That's weird." Jupiter stated bluntly, but then Mew asked her "I think what's weird is you saying you're a Galactic Cop when you're under Gravitus' thumb." Jupiter swung her right arm down and admitted casually "Oh boo-hoo. Gravitus might be an asshole, but he doesn't get in the way of our jobs unless he REALLY needs us. So I'm still free to kick-ass and bust villainous heads like I have since I lived on my home world."

"…So how exactly did Gravitus recruit you to his side then?" Kairi inquired, and Jupiter admitted with a melancholy sigh "Oh, he kicked MY ass hard. So I decided to just stick by his side and keep getting stronger so I could one day hopefully beat him down. But truth be told, I think you have a better shot at it, Mew." Mew then extends his right arm out and says "Assuming we make it past the rest of your allies."

Mew and Jupiter then shake hands, with Jupiter commenting with a brimming grin "Oh you shouldn't have too bad of a time. Just be careful of my si-Errr, never mind that." Jupiter stopped herself from saying something pretty obvious, but it was clear only Mew caught that and didn't feel like saying anything afterwards as he pulled back on his body and folded his arms together before immediately asking "By the way, I do believe you owe me your real name now that I won."

"Noel. You can call me Noel from now on." Jupiter quickly said, showing respect to Mew for his victory without any hesitation. Mew smiled and said to her "Again, it was an incredible battle we had…But I just have to wonder…" As Mew awkwardly turns his head left and right at the floating pieces of Callisto he asks the most important question of them all "Just what is going to happen to this moon now that you broke it?"

"Oh? This thing? Saturn will probably fix it up later when she gets a chance. I tend to do this a lot with the moons around here. You know how it is, sometimes you don't know your own strength…" Jupiter's response was rather casual for something so catastrophic in nature, and Mew just grinned and replied "Yeah, I think I can relate to that." Leading to Kairi turning away from them both with a disgruntled look as she whispered "Both of you are monsters…"

Mew heard that though, as he glanced to the left to acknowledge Kairi before looking at Jupiter and telling her "So I'm guessing you aren't going to be resting for long, Noel?" "Of course not! I'm going to get back to training on another moon until Saturn can come by and fix Callisto. Try not to beat her up to bad because of that, ok?" Jupiter inquired with her voice full of energy showing she was raring to go, and with a nod of his head Mew gestured two fingers beside his head and told her "Then we're off. Once we find the portal we'll go off to Saturn."

"Not before you tell me just how you survived my Buster Moon." Jupiter requested with another wink of the eye, and Mew sighed as he was in the middle of turning around before folding his arms back together and explaining "When I saw your attack coming, I created a carbon shell to act as a decoy while I dug a tunnel into the moon, hoping that I'd be able to use a sneak attack on you once you broke the moon. One thing I noticed about your battle style is that while you are able to keep your body going through a lot of hardships, you burn through your aura rather quickly, and it was once you had gotten rid of enough of it that you weren't able to survive one more attack from me."

"Really? That's all there was to it? Hahaha, brains and brawn…You're just full of surprises. Hey, if things don't work out with your girlfriend there, you can always try and take me for a spin sometime." Jupiter exclaimed as though she'd be very delighted if Mew said yes, but instead Mew awkwardly chuckled and told her "Eheheh, that's alright Noel. Catch you later though, hopefully." While Mew was focused on Jupiter, Kairi quickly flipped her off again for the girlfriend comment, and then the two of them got off the chunk of Callisto and flew back to the portal that was floating somewhere down below the rock.

Once the two were gone, Jupiter suddenly collapses right onto her back and says with a groan in her voice "Ooooooww! My muscles are really sore now…So that's what it's like to combat a god…He was a real freak of nature, but he really did impress me. If I wasn't in space, I'd be sweating like I was a waterfall right about now…" Jupiter then cracked a grin and said with some of her remaining energy "Man sis, I don't think even your insane luck will help you against this guy…" Jupiter then closed her eyelids and fell asleep, her light snore being heard by no one but herself as she relaxed her body after her hardest fought battle ever…

_Next Time: Enter the Galaxy Heroine_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: High-Speed Stakes on the Rings of Saturn! A Heroine Never Surrenders!**

With Jupiter's defeat behind them, Mew and Kairi had now gotten through half of the Planetary Aurians, and in general the two were feeling pretty good about the whole thing. As they returned to the Sages' Pyramid, Mew folded his arms behind his head and looked around a bit, saying once he was done "Ok, now that we're out of Jupiter's domain…" Mew then suddenly turned his head to the right all the way and spit out a tooth from his mouth, which made Kairi flinch in visible disgust before she exclaimed "What the hell are you doing?!"

Mew looked at her and said "Well Jupiter actually knocked a tooth out of me while we were fighting. I was waiting until I could get out of her sight before I spit it out." Mew then casually rubbed the back of his neck and groaned in pain, followed by him arching himself back while laying both hands against the part of his back above his rear and saying as he closed his eyelids "I am honestly feeling pretty sore right now…I never fought anyone with that much physical strength before."

"Are you going to be alright?" Kairi inquired, though her tone suggested that she figured Mew was just exaggerating the pain. Mew responded by barely cracking a smile for a moment, pushing himself forward to let out a gasp of air, and saying to Kairi "Of course I will. Losing a tooth is nothing really. I've lost a ton of them before while testing out the Earth element, all I need to do to get them back is change into one my Elemental Forms. Doing that instantly heals me of all physical wounds."

"So are you going to do that now, or…?" Kairi inquired while swinging her right hand around and leaning forward slightly, and Mew's answer was to smile and tell her "You're going to be fighting next, so no real point in healing myself up. Besides, it's not like I'm that hurt." "Oh yeah, I guess I am next." Kairi said with a look of realization in her eyes, and she then straightened her body and punched her right hand into her opposite palm with a lot of energy.

"Now I'll be able to show off what I learned from you!" Kairi boasted merrily, and Mew chuckled and admitted "You sure are being a little nicer to me recently, aren't you?" Kairi blushed a moment and then with widened eyes she looked at Mew and said as her blush faded away "Don't think much about it. I'm just appreciative of you helping me kick more ass, I still think you're mostly an idiot."

"Only mostly, hmm? What part of me do you consider to be a genius?" Mew tauntingly inquired while rubbing his chin, and Kairi smirked a bit while turning around, saying once she was facing the stairs to the next floor "You're a fighting genius, nothing else." She then began to climb the stairs, with Mew turning around and saying in a forcibly offended tone "Well hey now, I've built machines with my powers before. I wouldn't be able to do that without knowing how they work."

Once Mew caught up with Kairi, she told him while glancing over his left shoulder "I bet you just had a bunch of parts and assembled them with your powers." "Hehehe, you think I'm made of money or something? I have to build a lot of my appliances by taking rocks from the mountains and both shaping and converting them into different materials. Then I use instructions online to put them all together." Mew explained.

"Wait, so you need to build appliances on your own…Yet you've been living with a computer with working internet in the mountains? How do you afford that?" Kairi inquired in a very confused tone, and Mew shrugged his shoulder and explained "You'd be surprised at the type of boosted connection you can get with my electricity powers. And I've just had a computer in my house since I was born, same goes with all the video games and systems."

"Huh…And somehow you don't grab your government's attention either with your unknown signal." Kairi said, and with a chuckle Mew told her in a complimenting voice "You sure do know a bit about how my world operates. Guess you've studied my planet a lot." Kairi blushed a bit supposedly out of Mew's line of sight before answering with a slight stutter "I-It's nothing…It's just something we're supposed to study a lot in our school."

However, Mew then walked up beside her and leaned forward to pay attention to her blush as she hung her head forward a bit, and as Mew only smiled Kairi noticed him and felt her heart skip a beat before she jolted her head up and said "W-What's up with you now?!" Mew pulled back a bit and held his arms against the back of his head while saying "Nothing really. You're hiding something from me though, it's pretty obvious. And it probably has a lot to do with going to the surface world."

"I don't have to explain myself." Kairi defiantly said while folding her arms together, and with a chuckle Mew said "Yeah, I suppose that's true, as usual." He surprisingly didn't try to pursue the issue any further than that, which caught Kairi by complete surprise as she blinked twice and then looked straight ahead as the two of them finished climbing the staircase. In this next chamber they find the area lined with very sleek metal walls and technologically black cracks that flashed multicolored lights through the area.

This was the most simplistic of the chambers so far, though the vibrant colors at least did grab the two's attention for a bit. "Yep, knew it. Saturn is a technology lover." Mew stated immediately, leading to them walking forward as Kairi explained "Her title IS the 'Techno Ring Blader'…I'm more surprised there isn't more to this room though than these, admittedly cool looking, walls." Kairi began to walk over to one of the walls to lay her hand down on it, but Mew quickly exclaimed in a panic "I wouldn't do that!"

Kairi stops and turns around before asking "What? What's going on here?" "There might be traps within the walls. Lets just go for the portal and ignore what's in this room for now." Mew states while pushing both of his hands out in front of his chest as though he was admonishing a curious child, leading to Kairi glaring at him before saying "Ok ok, you don't need to act like that. I won't touch ANYTHING."

Kairi joins back up with Mew and keeps her word as the two of them go straight for the portal, since there really wasn't anything else they needed to discuss along the way. Mew popped his veil of air and gave Kairi a small one as well since they'd be going deeper into space. The two then leap into the portal and once again make the swift jump through the solar system to the next planet on their quest, Saturn. Unlike with Jupiter, the two of them actually get dropped off near the planet instead of one of Saturn's moons.

With Saturn being a gas giant like Jupiter, it only made sense that Mew and Kairi would exit the portal and end up directly above the rings of the planet. The sudden lack of footing caught Kairi off-guard at first, making her feel the weightlessness of space until she activated her flight and levitated right beside Mew, who immediately folded his arms together and looked down at the slowly spinning rings of ice particles and rocky debris and dust.

"Now this is a pretty sight. If only there was more light out here to reflect off of the ice particles…" Mew remarked with a smile on his face. "It'd be a nice touch, I guess. So hey, Saturn's another gas giant again, right?" Kairi inquired while looking at Mew, and he lifts his head up before telling her "Yep. Saturn is just like that Jupiter is that regard…Only without as much of a threatening gravitational pull."

Mew then turned to face the pale yellow planet and said "I can't even feel it from here. Anyways, as much as I'd like to enjoy the sights, we should be looking for Saturn…" As Mew has his hand on his chin while staring at the planet still, Kairi gives him an odd look before he says to her in a slightly embarrassed and quiet manner "The Planetary Aurian, I mean…Not the planet…You already know I meant that, stop giving me that look."

"No you idiot, look behind you." Kairi said as she gestured her right hand past Mew, leading to Mew turning around and seeing someone slowly approaching the two of them from afar. They descended from a circular black metal ship that immediately flew off at light speed before Mew could get a good look at it. The person was descending down while standing atop a discus made out of thin steel that radiated with a neon ring around the edge.

The person standing on the discus was a teenage girl that was the shortest person the two had encountered so far, being a couple inches shorter than Mars. She wears a white tank top and roughed up blue jeans complete with soot on them, and a loose white lab coat whose sleeves are pulled back a bit. On her face are glasses with square lens and blue rims, her hair also being blue and long enough to reach down behind her kneecaps, and wrapped around her right wrist is a black and yellow cybernetic bracelet. She had no curves to speak of, and was maybe a little thinner than the average girl her size.

Once the girl was level with her two guests she hopped off of her discus and lifted a hand from her lab coat pocket to touch her bracelet, which causes the discus to immediately shrink down into an eye-sized dot and slip itself into her pocket while she puts her hand back inside it. With an intrigued grin the girl said very quickly "So you're my guests today! A young Elemental Overlord and an Aurian!" It was a good thing her two guests were paying close attention, cause otherwise the girl's fast-paced speaking would've made it difficult to understand her.

Mew looked a bit surprised that his identity was recognized, and he said with a stutter of joy "Y-You know who I-" "Am? Yep! I've been watching you fight all of my fantastic comrades via nanobug camera technology in the air. Even if I didn't, I've studied everything I could about Elemental Overlord lore, not to mention all of the stuff I've heard about your brother Riku." The girl interrupted Mew before he finished his sentence, and she could be seen steadily tapping her foot against a small slanted block of aura she created to show some impatience at how slow Mew was talking.

Kairi blinked twice upon hearing that Mew had a brother, but she only gets to let out a 'Huh?' before Mew said "So you know about-" "Your brother? Yeah! I heard he's been out saving tons of planets all on his own!" Once Saturn had finished her quick-spoken interruption, an impressed and proud Mew said to himself "Well how about that Riku…Looks like word has spread of your heroics."

"Anyways! I haven't introduced myself yet! I'm Planetary Aurian Saturn, but you can call me by my real name Catherine since you've been asking my comrades about that until now." Saturn said with a brimming smile on her face, and Mew was starting to get the idea of how he was going to handle this conversation and with his right hand raised up he stated with as much speed as Saturn "So you're a technological genius, aren't you? And you're also the one Mercury and Venus said was working on ways to save them from their problems?"

Saturn's expression becomes even brighter in an instant, her eyes so wide in joy because someone was speaking on her level. She then raised a hand from her lab coat and gestured it out before telling him "Yep yep yep! I am that gal! I've worked really hard to get the machines up and running, but I am just missing one veeeeeery crucial element to get them running. I've searched far and wide across this vast, beautiful universe of ours, studied thousands of worlds worth of alien technology, but I just can't find that element I need."

Saturn pinches her fingers together and grins heavily, showing both her grand enthusiasm and pride that she has gotten as far as she has in her work. Mew says to her "I can tell you're being honest about your work. I'm sorry to say I probably can't help you finish the job though." Saturn stands herself upright and waves her right pointer finger around before stating "You're underestimating yourself there Elemental Overlord. I've been watching your fights after all, and I think that it's very possible for the raw elemental energy you've been exerting to be JUST what I need to split Mercury and give Venus her body back."

"Oh? Well I guess we could test that in battle." Saturn remarked while leaning her head forward, her lens becoming fogged up assumedly because she willed it, and she continued to grin happily at the prospect presented to her. Mew gestured out to left of him and said "I'd love to do that, but Kairi here is going to be your opponent." "Nope! I'm shutting you down faster than I did that rogue computer virus from Tellios-7! Rite of Singularity, and I choose you to be my opponent Elemental Overlord!" Saturn exclaims while brandishing a pointer finger forward at Mew, continuing to hide her eyes behind her fogged up glasses and grinning.

"…Ah crap." Mew murmured while he and Kairi widened their eyes at Saturn's sudden proclamation of the Rite of Singularity. Saturn then lifted her head up and caused her glasses to go back to normal as she said "If I didn't do it, Kairi there could've activated the Rite of Singularity and ruined my entire operation." "O-Operation?" Mew inquired in a surprised tone.

Saturn fiercely nodded her head, throwing her unkempt hair forward and back as one wonders how she didn't throw her neck out of whack with how quickly she nodded. She then said to Mew happily "Operation: Elemental Overlord Battle! I have long awaited the chance to battle an Elemental Overlord, and what better one than the brother of the famous galactic hero Riku! You shall be my greatest adversary!" Her enthusiasm dripped with every word she spoke, and as much as Mew wished for Kairi to get a fight in to test her new skills out he had to instead sigh and say while looking at her "Looks like I'll have to give you the next opponent after Saturn, Kairi."

After letting this high-speed conversation go along with this while feeling some pain in her brain from trying to keep up with it all, Kairi just grasps the side of her head and waves a hand out at Mew while saying in a tired tone "Y-Yeah, I can't override the Rite of Singularity, so just get your fight over with. I'm going to get out of the way and maybe use some of the ice to get rid of this headache…" As Kairi flew off with a hand still on her head Mew made a point to shrug and say in an apologetic tone "Sorry this happened, I didn't think Catherine here would be an Elemental Overlord fan girl."

"Haha! I am no fan girl! How can I be when you are my enemy, Elemental Overlord?!" Saturn proclaimed with all of her energy, and she began to pant a bit out of sheer excitement as she leaned forward and her glasses fogged up again. Mew folded his arms together and looked at Saturn, asking her in an intrigued tone "I am your enemy?" "All heroines need a villain to face, and that's all you have to be in this situation, Elemental Overlord!" Saturn stated while giggling a little. 

"Oh? I must play the role of a villain? I suppose being a hero does get tiring after a while. So you hope to get some more data on my elemental energy in hopes of helping Mercury and Venus?" Mew said nonchalantly while holding a hand against the back of his head, leading to Saturn nodding her head again and admitting "And perhaps I can combine your elemental energy with other technologies and create even more amazing stuff! Oh man, I get giddy just thinking about the possibilities! H-Huff…H-Huff!"

Saturn panted more and more, but then calms herself down a bit as Mew gives her a look of surprise. Mew then looks at Saturn's bracelet and says "You know, I didn't think you'd have an Aurian Drive bracelet still. The others had their drives become one with their bodies, after all." Saturn turns her head a bit to the right to look straight at Mew, smiling again as her glasses fogged up and created a tiny glimmer of light from one of the corners, and after chuckling internally she stated "You think it's an Aurian Drive bracelet? You know not what it is I wield, my nemesis."

Saturn suddenly swung the bracelet in front of her chest and with just a bit of pressure exerted from clenched her fist the bracelet suddenly lights up with cracks of light-blue aura that divide the yellow and black colors and cause both segments to pop out a few centimeters from the wrist. Saturn suddenly proclaimed with the utmost joy in her voice "Establishing Genetic Link! Biomerge Protocol Activate! Password: Catherine! Prepare yourself nemesis Overlord, I am going to show you my first and greatest creation of all!"

At her command, the yellow segments of the bracelet spread out and attach themselves to the feet and backs of her hands and then expanded outward like a combination of latex and metal across Saturn's body. Her legs, arms and body are wrapped up in a suit of this shiny material, her lab coat being pushed inside perfectly so it becomes one with her figure. Once the material stretches up to her neck, the material spawns forth a small flat circular energy pack on the center of her back while the black segments from her bracelet go to the front of her hands and feet.

The process is thus repeated again, with the black material wrapping itself over the energy pack and yellow material entirely. But this time, the black material stretches out and grabs Saturn's hair, pulling it closer into her body so it could also be wrapped up once the black metal enveloped itself around her head save for her facial area. The black metal summons forth a distorted "m" visor made of thick blue glass, and with a thought Saturn summons forth a series of plates up from the metal on her chin that cover her mouth and nose. The black metal then splits a bit across the arms and legs, having the yellow metal pop up connected to the energy pack, and the yellow metal glows brightly and contrasts well with the black. The visor then flashes brightly and gives Mew a more visible look at Saturn's eyes again.

Saturn then crosses her arms in front of her face with all her fingers out, clenching them both into fists and causing three metallic rings to spawn out from the black metal that glow brightly with three different colors that represent the ice and stones of Saturn's rings. She then spread her legs out halfway to the maximum and summons forth three more rings below the kneecaps, followed by her pulling back a bit and swing her right hand diagonally upright and proclaiming "Introducing…!"

She then takes her right hand and swings it around in a ring to create some light-blue aura in front of her, and she follows this up by jabbing into the circle rapidly with her left hand to spread out a series of streaks and dots made of aura while saying "Defender of All Worlds!" She then slashes down diagonally to the right and creates a thick streak of aura that looks like a comet trail before she proclaims "The High-Speed Heroine of the Stars!"

Saturn leaps off an aura platform with it's own defined gravity that suddenly appeared below her feet and flips over the symbol she had created, using her hands to push out aura dust that spreads around the ring. Saturn lands in front of her symbol perfectly while crossing her arms horizontally against her chest and holding her head up high as the finished symbol explodes brightly behind her and she proclaims "Galaxy Rider Saturn is here!"

Mew was left completely speechless as his eyelids blink twice and he thinks to himself _"When the fuck did I get involved in a sentai…" _Saturn chuckled at Mew and said to him boisterously and in an over-the-top, filtered voice "Are you scared by my presence, evildoer?!" Mew blinks twice and then scratches the back of his head awkwardly before saying sarcastically and then asking "Verily so…So ummm, you created this exosuit all by yourself?"

"Of course! Nothing is too difficult for the greatest genius mind of Techturion-X7! Now then, let us fight like we should, nemesis Overlord! Just give me a moment to create our battle arena!" Saturn proclaimed before swinging her body to the left with a fluid glide and jabbing both of her arms out towards the rings of the planet. Suddenly, the rings around her arms glowing light-blue, and Saturn quickly sends out a heavy, heavy amount of aura in the form of two beams. The aura spreads out across the rings at a very high speed, enveloping them in a thick but translucent shell in roughly a minute.

By the time Saturn was done, the planet's rings had basically been converted into a bright highway, and as Saturn's arm rings turn back to their normal color she dives down towards that highway and proclaimed while not sounding the least bit tired "Come! We'll fight on here!" Mew was surprised that even with all the aura she expended Saturn hadn't lost much energy, but with his right hand held out he follows the girl down to the confined rings of the planet. Once the two had landed on the bright surface, Saturn stood sideways and held her arms out while turning her head to look at Mew and state "My Aurian Drive WAS the Confinement Drive, but I simply use it to create pathways for myself to ride along, much like this one."

"To do so around the rings of Saturn though…" Mew says while summoning forth his sword into the grasp of his extended right hand, smiling before telling her "It's very impressive. What else do you have to show me?" From within her exosuit's helmet, Saturn uses her glasses and visor to scan Mew's body and sword, sensing a flow of heated energy going towards the blade and an increase in his muscle tension. She thus smiled and said while tiny laser blades pop out from the bottom of her feet "Now we run!"

With a sharp swerve to the right Saturn suddenly skates off across the highway with a high burst of speed, surprising Mew as she sets his blade on fire and holds it out beside himself while breaking into a run and holding a serious look on his face. It doesn't take long for Mew to start catching up with Saturn, something the girl is keen to as she has a camera keeping an eye on things behind her as video footage is fed to her via her visor.

Data runs on by via her glasses and inputs itself directly into her brain via nerve connectors, and Saturn remarks "Lets try this out first…" With perfect focus and movement, Saturn slides along the aura pathway in a large sweeping arc in order to turn herself around, detaching the three rings from her left arm and sending them out at Mew. Mew raises his sword up to try and deflect the rings with a slash, but instead of fending them off the rings fight past the flames and attach themselves to the blade with a magnetic force.

Once there the rings use that same magnetic force to resist Mew's grasp and pull the sword straight down, forcing Mew to turn around as the blade is plunged right into the ground of aura. Saturn stops skating for a moment and then goes straight at Mew after firing off boosters from the back of her hands and feet. Mew just decides to not bother dealing with his sword for now, and with the magnetic rings preventing him from dispelling his sword he turns around and covers his right arm in a thick metal before Saturn can hit him with a left punch.

As the metal holds back Saturn's punch for a bit, Mew begins to feel some heat building up within her rings as they move closer to his arm, and Mew had enough common sense to pull his arm back and then swerved his head to the left to dodge the punch while looking a bit surprised at the properties of Saturn's rings as he barely avoided them burning into his shoulder. He then leaps back as Saturn swings her right hand up and commands the rings attached to Mew's sword to briefly come off and fly at Mew one at a time, each one nearly scraping against the sides of his body as he spun around in mid-air and tried to grab onto his sword with his mind only for the rings to return and disrupt the connection again.

Once Mew landed on the ground he tried to focus on his blade and repel the magnetic force exerted from the rings by applying an opposite magnetic pulse on the sword. The rings pop right off and Mew immediately pulls his sword from the ground with his mind before Saturn could reactive the rings, and he then sprints forward and grabs his sword by the handle in both hands and thrusts it forward at Saturn's exosuit. Saturn swerved to the left, but the edge of Mew's sword cuts right through the side of her exosuit.

The blade doesn't manage to reach Saturn's skin, and the material patches itself up quickly as Saturn performs a spin kick and proclaims "Teriyaaaaah!" She slams her right leg into Mew's back and releases a pulse of aura from the rings surrounding them to further increase the power of her attack. A burst of energy erupts out as Mew is sent flying forward, leading to him then catching himself with his flight and spinning himself around before he lands on the aura highway and skids back a few feet while leaning forward.

He looks up at Saturn and watches as she dashes forward and leaps up as she gets close to him, throwing two quick kicks towards Mew's head that fail to hit as he lifts himself up and leans his body back. Saturn then stamps down on the ground with one foot while stretching her arms out, creating a shockwave of aura that Mew flips back to avoid as Saturn's rings turn bright yellow and she holds both of her arms in front of her head and proclaims "Photon Blasters!" while firing two beams of proton energy through her glowing rings.

Mew swipes his sword left to deflect the photon beams and then swiped again to send out a wave of flame at Saturn's chest. The flames collide with her chest and do nothing but disperse away. Mew then lands on the aura highway again and pays close attention as Saturn fires off the boosters on her exosuit and zips across the ground to end up behind him in an instant, where she turns around and tries to thrust her right hand out to punch Mew in the back of the head.

Mew hardens the back of his skull with iron to protect himself while he takes a moment to turn himself around, but when Saturn's fist collides with his head she mimics a tremor through her exosuit's material and makes it as though a small earthquake rattled Mew's head. Mew feels a bit of dizzying nausea as his vision blurs and his concentration on the world around him becomes shaky at best. Saturn takes advantage of this by getting directly in front of Mew and grabbing him by his shirt, holding him up as she uses her scanner to determine that his right shoulder was weakened at the moment.

Lifting her left hand up to lay it against Mew's shoulder, Saturn states slowly and quietly "Lets try this…" As Mew grits his teeth and tries to recover himself from the pain in his rattled head, he feels Saturn's hand on his shoulder and knew to expect something bad from her exosuit. The rings turn into a sleek, hardened steel, and Saturn pushes them all together as though she was ready to fire them off like a pile bunker. Mew faked his expression of dizziness as he waited for the very exact moment where Saturn would send her rings out.

Once Saturn did that, Mew pulled off a risky gambit and used his powers to cover a short part of his right shoulder in vibranium, thus making it so the very moment the blunt force of Saturn's arm rings hit it the physical force was repelled back in the form of a powerful shockwave that distorts the fabric of space briefly and pushes Saturn back hard, her armor rippling all around as Saturn is sent crashing against the ground and made the aura crack. Mew lands on the ground and turns his shoulder back to normal, though there was still some pain there for turning it into such a tough metal.

Instead of being surprised by what Mew did, Saturn pushes herself upright with her aura boosters and immediately squealed in delight before proclaiming "Oh yes yes yes! You can make vibranium! I've never gotten a chance to experiment with that cause I assumed it was a fictional material! Eeeeeeeee!" Her excitement echoed through the filter of her mask, not at all dissolving how energetic she was. Mew just raised his eyebrows, and Saturn coughed a bit before folding her arms together and proclaimed "I mean…Not a bad job, villain! Now let me show you more of what I can do!"

Saturn then swung her arms out and pressed her rings together, where she then ignited them brightly and created sweeps of aura that solidified into fiery blades of aura on her arms. "Blade Runner Mode Activated!" Saturn exclaimed before her visor switched to a bright red glass and the yellow parts of her armor turned light-blue in a flash. She then skated forward so quickly it was like she was gliding right over the aura platform. Once she got in front of Mew she slashed her aura swords twice out in large, sweeping arcs, with Mew barely having enough time to swing his sword around to block the attacks.

Saturn then zips right behind Mew so quickly that she leaves an afterimage of aura in her wake, and she kicks down with her right foot to cut into the back of Mew's shirt with her skating blade and nick his skin enough. The superheated blade makes the attack hurt more, but Saturn's true goal was to use her foot boosters to blow Mew away. But Mew turns around and puts all of his strength into slashing downward into the foot of Saturn's exosuit, shattering the skate and cutting through the material just enough to draw some blood from the bottom of her foot.

But with Saturn's exosuit sealing itself up and repairing the broken skate, Mew was not able to follow up on that with another attack as Saturn fought through her pain without reacting even a bit and sweeping both of her blades downward right through Mew's body. But even though the swords didn't inflict any physical wounds Mew felt a great deal weaker from the attack, as though his very life energy was struck.

Mew recognized the danger of Saturn's blades and thus leaped back before she could attack again, and he turned around and sprinted off to get some distance and allow himself a chance to think about this whole situation. As he threw his sword over to his left arm and stuck to the inner edge of the area, Mew commented in his head _"Saturn's exosuit is very versatile and powerful…But Saturn's own body likely isn't very durable because of it. If I can just get one good attack through her exosuit, I should win easily." _

While he spent time in these thoughts, Saturn had caught up to him easily with her high-speed skating and swung herself straight at him while slashing both of swords down at his legs. Mew brings his own blade down and grinds it against the aura while holding back Saturn's sword, thinking to himself while keeping a playful expression on his face to hide his concerns _"Can't let those swords touch me…" _

Mew then lifts his sword up and moves to the left to body check Saturn with his shoulder to knock her away, but then Saturn speeds herself up and flips around while leaping once in order to release all six rings from her legs and then fire off her boosters to launch herself backwards while simultaneously turning around to continue skating off the moment she lands. The six rings home-in on Mew's general location and surround him at different points, managing to keep up with him as he gives them all a suspicious glance.

Saturn then suddenly turned herself around and fired off two aura lasers from her shoulders that went straight for the rings around Mew. The rings reflected the lasers around, mostly making them go towards Mew and forcing him to move around to get avoid getting hit. But then Saturn applies more pressure to him by flying at him and going for some attacks with her swords, forcing Mew to balance between swinging his sword around to block her blades while barely avoiding the lasers reflected at him.

It was a high-speed combination of dodging and attacking from both parties as they continued to speed around Saturn, flaring up the darkness of space with their clashing blades for at least a minute until Mew starts perfecting the rhythm of defense and offense and focuses more on Saturn's chest, realizing that he could get a strong hit on her body from there. Waiting just a few more seconds, Mew then dispelled his sword and thrust his right hand forward, leaping up so the lasers would miss him and then unleashing a powerful seismic force from his palm to make the metal of her exosuit ripple apart, revealing the chest of her tank top underneath both layers.

Before the suit could repair itself, Mew created a thick pentagram of metal within the hole to hold it back, giving him just enough time to swing his left fist up and punch the center of the metal pentagram and unleash another seismic blast through Saturn's body while upper cutting her over his body. The heavy blow to Saturn's actual body disrupts her concentration on her rings, making them all drop to the ground as Mew spun around and stopped running right as Saturn falls down onto her knees with her head positioned so she was looking towards Mew's location.

The blades of aura disappear from Saturn's arms, and her exosuit's colors return to normal, with the pentagram of metal shattering and the material reforming the hole in her chest. Mew looked at Saturn and said honestly while gesturing his right hand out "Sorry if I was a little rough, Catherine, but you put up a good fight if it's any condolence." Saturn was quivering a bit, making Mew concerned that he had overdone it with his seismic attack until she started laughing merrily.

"Confident…Aren't we? You're playing the villain role very well, Elemental Overlord." Saturn stated as she lifted her head up and showed her eager smile through her visor. Mew asked her with some concern in his voice "You want to keep going? You're just as determined to fight as I am, aren't you?" Saturn fervently nodded her head and explained while lifting her hands up and clenching them into fists "Don't you get it? This is the fight I've always wanted to have! An opponent that tests my knowledge to my absolute limits…And for that, you've been PERFECT, Elemental Overlord!"

"…Wait…Don't tell me…" Mew's eyes widen as he realizes quickly from Saturn's enthusiasm that she hadn't yet shown off everything her exosuit was capable of. Saturn starts to push herself up while her glasses fogged up again, with her exclaiming with all of her energy "Underestimating me were you? Who the hell do you think I am? Ever since I was born, I've been a genius among geniuses, someone who surpassed all others even in our techno punk world. But even with technology surrounding every fiber of my being, I never ignored the arcane in my studies, so when I gained the ability to control aura I knew that I could utilize it in conjunction with my first and greatest creation to fight on an even level with the gods themselves. Call me arrogant for that if you want, but in the end that's just the basic nature and role of my species since the very beginning of time. Whether it be normal, alien, or magitechnology…So long as it exists, I will learn everything about it and use it to help those in need!"

As Saturn spoke, her exosuit slowly began to change colors again. This time, the yellow transformed into perfect silver, and her skates disappeared as the metal tightened slightly around her body, the rings all becoming bright translucent halos, leading up to Saturn exclaiming as loud as she could "Because I am Galaxy Rider Saturn! The hope of the universe, the heroine for those who cry out in pain to look up to for relief, and the living weapon of your defeat, Elemental Overlord! Limit Break Activate, Galactic Moonlight!" Saturn crossed her arms as hard as she could as her visor transformed into pure gold and her aura burst out behind her exosuit in the form of six long and bright silver wings.

As the release of Saturn's ultimate power shatters apart the very aura confining the planet's rings, Mew tries to hold his right hand out to summon his sword, but Saturn doesn't waste any time and warps time and space with how fast she appears in front of him and punches him clear in the chest, launching him straight away from the planet's rings as holy light erupts from the exosuit in a sphere and destroys a heavy amount of debris from the rings while Saturn pursues Mew through the depths of space, streaking the black expanse with the silver of her wings as she was a comet. Once Saturn got behind Mew she took her aura and created a small sphere in both hands, thrusting them out and having the sphere collide with Mew's body to send him flying back towards the planet while creating a small moon sized blast of aura that Saturn immediately compiles back into her exosuit as she flies through it to continue her pursuit.

Mew focused only at defense for the moment, as Saturn was moving too fast for him to counterattack as of right now. He wouldn't be able to get into his Light Form with the pressure she was applying onto him, so his hopes all rested on him getting off one more attack onto Saturn's main body. Raising his power to 100% to help with his defenses, Mew spun his body around to face Saturn only for him to get slammed straight in the stomach with both of her fists and be carried straight towards the planet itself.

Mew holds his breath to the best of his ability as even his veil of air could only fend off so much of the planet's atmosphere as Saturn plunges through the planet, puncturing Mew right through the solid core and making it out the other side where Kairi happened to be. She gets to watch as Saturn pushes Mew off of her arms by releasing a massive burst of aura through twenty increasingly larger shockwaves that moves the gassy atmosphere of the planet aside. Mew was very beat up from being pushed through the planet's core by Saturn's strength, and he was sent flying through the depths of space far away from the planet.

Saturn then rises up high with her wings spread out below her as they followed her up, and once she was above the planet Saturn's body glows so bright and white she was almost like a star, with the rings of the planet glowing with the purest of radiance. Her wings spread out for miles and miles on end, a single flap of them downward being enough to spread out the upper half of Saturn's atmosphere temporarily. Saturn then locked on to Mew even from this great distance with her scanners and the very moment he recovered from the earlier attack she noticed his condition and smiled a bit before saying in a lamenting tone "It's been fun, but I've got to end this now!"

A timer starts to tick down on her visor, and Saturn's expression becomes completely serious but energetic as she fuses all six wings of aura together into two and spread them wide, exclaiming at the top of her lungs "MOONLIGHT BUTTERFLY!" With a straight dive downward, Saturn flies through space so fast that the aura of her wings spreads out like stardust behind her, creating an absolutely gorgeous sight across the black expanse of space as she flies her way rapidly towards Mew.

Mew firmed his expression and pulled his right fist back, burning it with bright flames as he stated to himself "Got to put everything I got into this one attack…" He waited until Saturn was very close to him to thrust his fist outward, colliding his attack straight on with Saturn's Moonlight Butterfly, creating a collision of forces so strong that Saturn's aura erupts from her formation that spreads out over a thousand miles of space while mixing in with the flames of Mew's own fist to create a large burning flash within the depths of space.

It doesn't take long for the flash to fade out of existence, and in the center of it were both parties responsible for it's creation, and the two floated close to one another. Mew's fist was plunged deep into the gut of Saturn's exosuit, signifying that he managed to deal a heavy blow to her body. But in the process his arm's position looked incredibly off, and the fact that Mew grimaced in pain showed that he had broken his arm to deliver this decisive blow.

Saturn's colors return to normal, and she weakly lifts her hand up to grab onto Mew's arm while holding her head up and smiling through her visor. Saturn then acts overdramatic about the situation by murmuring weakly "I guess…Even heroines…Have to lose sometimes…You're definitely fighting for something worth fighting for…" Mew smiled back at her and said "Yeah…At least I hope I am. Anyways, let me take you back to the planet for now, Catherine."

"Hmmm…You're a good guy…Elemental Overlord…" Saturn says as Mew holds her in his left arm across her back and puts her close to his body. She then closes her eyelids and relaxes for a bit while Mew flies his way back to the planet's rings, paying attention to where Kairi was with his senses so he'd be able to get back to her with ease. Once he was close enough to her location, Kairi looked up and was surprised to see that Mew had won considering the power Saturn had shown off.

Mew hovers above the rings of the planet as Kairi flies over to him, her tilting her head and looking puzzled at Saturn's resting body before she looks Mew straight in the eyes and inquired "You doing ok?" Mew looks down at his right arm and it's limpness, stating to Kairi with a casual tone of voice "Just broke my right arm to defeat Saturn, but I'll be fine after a little relaxation." Kairi freaked out a bit at the condition of Mew's arm and said to him "Don't do that you idiot! You should never have to break a part of your body to win a battle!"

"Hehehe, not like I really had a choice in the matter, Catherine here wasn't giving me much of a break." Mew laughed off his damaged arm nonchalantly while praising the strength of his opponent, and Saturn chuckled a bit at the praise before Mew looked down at her and said "Ok Catherine, you can get up now." Saturn chuckled a little louder and then lifted herself upright as Mew put his arm down beside his body. Saturn then pushed herself back a few feet and laid one hand on her right wrist, causing her exosuit to pull itself off of her body and revert back to it's bracelet form.

With a nudge of her glasses upward to make them fog up a bit, Saturn smiled and said calmly "I suppose I was enjoying the attention a little too much. Fufufu…" Kairi remarked to her while having a bit of a glare on her face "You sure aren't speaking as quickly as you were before." "Everyone is allowed to be tired, especially when they drain all of their adrenaline in one go…" Saturn replied with the utmost honesty.

"So Catherine, did you get any good results from our battle regarding my elemental energy?" Mew inquired, and Saturn let her glasses return to normal before she sighed and told him "Unfortunately, I don't think your elemental energy would be enough to save Mercury and Venus. It functions a lot like aura does, from my observations. I need something a little more powerful…Perhaps something from the very stars themselves." She rubbed her chin in intrigue towards that idea immediately afterwards.

"So what's your reason for working with Gravitus?" Kairi bluntly asked to change the conversation, something Mew immediately berates by shrugging his working shoulder and stating with a sigh "Kairi…" Kairi looks at him and exclaims "It's a legitimate question Mew! I can ask it whenever I want!"

Saturn chuckles a bit more before stating "Your heart beat is increasing quite a bit when you talk to Mew, Kairi…Fufufu, I wonder if there is something interest there?" Kairi's eyes widen up angrily as she turns back to look at Saturn, and Saturn gets the hint and immediately goes on to answer her question "Regarding Gravitus though…He defeated me in battle long ago, but he proposed to me a rather interesting proposition. Basically, he gave me the chance to travel the universe and learn more about all the technologies across all the different worlds. Considering both of our ages are frozen at this point in time, we both knew we'd have plenty of time to accomplish our goals if we worked together."

"So basically, you did it for science?" Mew stated, and Saturn nodded her head and added a little more detail to that reasoning by saying "Science and heroism, naturally. Gravitus has always been pretty kind to me when it comes to giving me technology to work with, and I've built plenty of spaceships for him to use for travel." Saturn nudged her glasses up a bit and then forgoes all humbleness in order to explain "Well, I've done a lot more than that. I created the dimensional portals in the pyramid, gave my allies access to portal technology and personal ships for them to travel around and help others, made the modern Earth technology available to the people of Sancturia, and I help to keep the cloaking technology stable in the city."

"While also working on your exosuit, right?" Mew inquired, and Saturn once more nodded her head and said "Yep. As you saw with my final attack, I've figured out how to amplify the power of my aura tenfold, but only for about a couple minutes. I guess I'll never be able to perfectly replicate the effects of the Neo Drive."

"You've studied the Neo Drive?" Kairi inquired in a very puzzled tone right away, and Saturn replied by stating "Of course. It's at the very top of the Sages' Pyramid silly. Gravitus has allowed me many chances to look at it, but as far as I can tell it's something not even I can figure out all the way." "That's too bad. One more question then…Why is your skin color the only one of the Planetary Aurian's that is normal? I'd at least expect it to look yellow considering the planet's coloring." Mew asked.

"Camouflaging, basically. I hide my modified skin color so I can better associate with people from other worlds, changing it back only when I meet the most alien of life forms. Each of the Planetary Aurians sans Venus and Pluto have a bracelet that allows them to change their colors back to normal, but I get the feeling I'm the only one who really makes use of them….Heheh." Saturn says, making an awkward chuckle at the end of her sentence while sounding a bit tired, likely meaning the effects of the battle were starting to catch up with her. "I get the feeling you should head back to whatever ship you were riding earlier and get some rest, Catherine." Mew suggested peacefully.

"No way…There's always so much to do…I got to fix the planet up after our battle, I need to repair Callisto after Jupiter broke it…" Saturn said while coming off as increasingly tired, and with a shrug of his functioning shoulder Mew said "Do what you have to Saturn, but a proper sleep keeps the brain functioning. The two of us are going to head back to the pyramid now, however." Saturn just lifts her right hand up and waves it out before telling her guests "Oooookay then, go have some fun with the last three of my fellow allies."

"We will, hopefully." Mew said before turning himself around, though before he and Kairi could fly back to the portal out of here Saturn fogged her glasses up one last time and said "Mew…Perhaps sometime you can come visit me again and we can test out your ability to manipulate metals…I am quite curious to see what you can create for me. Fufufu…" "Y-Yeah…Maybe we can." Mew responded with some hesitance in his voice without looking back.

Once he was sure Saturn was out of earshot, Mew turned his head to look at Kairi and said to her while gesturing his limp arm a bit "Next time Kairi, you should activate the Rite of Singularity. Cause my arm is going to be out for the next half hour after that battle." Kairi widened her eyes and realized "Oh yeah, I guess I could do that. Ummm, I get the feeling you were better suited to fight Saturn anyways." Mew just blinks his eyelids twice and sighs, saying quietly right after "…Lets just get ready to take our next break." The two then go through the portal to return to the pyramid.

_Next Time: Fight For What's Right_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The Third Respite: Who We Fight For**

_It is a starry night above Sancturia a few years after the last memory Kairi had experienced. At the edge of the city, an older Kairi and Shina sit down and look out at the sparkling lights in the sky. Kairi was now a couple inches over five feet tall, and was wearing a smaller version of her present day green shirt and pants while her hair was tied into two cute little ponytails. Shina's hair was now halfway down her back but without the headband atop her head, she also wore beige pants and a long-sleeve blue shirt, and was an inch taller than her sister._

_Looking up towards the sky, the two watch as the dark skies light up with the sight of falling stars. It was a beautiful spectacle, and Kairi innocently raised her right pointer finger up and said with gasps of awe "Look Shina! There goes another one! And another one!" She kept following the falling stars to the best of her ability while Shina smiled and said happily "Aren't they beautiful Kairi? It's not every day you get to see falling stars."_

"_I wonder where they fall to? Do they go down to Earth?" Kairi inquired, leading to Shina holding her arms out and stating excitedly "Actually, shooting stars are alien spacecraft that are going through the planet's atmosphere to meet the humans down below!" Kairi looks away from the shooting stars and gives her sister a silly glare, telling her with a giggle in her voice "Shina, I'm too old to be falling for that type of story now."_

_Shina raised her right hand up with a pointer finger only raised before saying "But you laughed at the story anyways. I'm still doing my job as your older sister, even though you're twelve." "Hehehe, I know Shina. But still, doesn't it make you curious to know what happens to shooting stars when they fall from the sky?" Kairi inquired innocently after complimenting her sister for her efforts._

_Shina leaned back and looked up towards the sky, kicking her feet against the edge of the city while mentioning "Who knows? I don't think they actually land anywhere…I think mom told me that they disintegrate before they reach the planet's surface." "Do the humans watch the stars fall as well?" Kairi then inquired, with Shina simply shrugging her shoulders and saying "Probably. But they might not have as good of a view as we do."_

"_Well that's true…But we're so high above the surface of the planet." Kairi chuckled innocently, followed by Shina saying to her "Only a few thousand feet, really…I've heard some mountains reach up even higher than that." As Shina rubs her chin and puts on a very serious look of thought for a few seconds until Kairi tilts her head and asks "Shina? What do you think it's like living on the Earth?"_

"_Beats me. Considering the stuff we have imported into our mall, the people of Earth must live happily, I'd imagine. I only know so much from our history books too." Shina remarked, and Kairi perked her head up and mentioned "Mom said we aren't allowed to go down to the Earth until we are twenty years old…But I'm just itching to go down there right now!" Kairi exclaimed while kicking her feet rapidly against the edge of the city and holding her fists close to her chest._

"_It's only another six years for me and eight for you Kairi. It's not that long of a time, alright?" Shina said in a reassuring, upbeat tone of voice. "Mmmm…You don't have to wait as long though as I do though, Shina." Kairi lamented while hanging her head down a bit. Shina pauses for a few seconds, tapping two fingers against her chin before snapping them once and stating happily "Tell you what sis!"_

_Kairi looks at Shina with a curious glance, and Shina stretched her arms out as wide as she could and stated "I won't go down to Earth until you are also old enough to go. That way we can explore the planet together as sisters. Doesn't that sound nifty?" Kairi blinks a couple times and then chuckles, leading to her raising a hand close to her mouth and stating "Of course! I'd love to go down to the Earth together." _

_Shina keeps her arms stretched out and exclaimed "We can scale the mountains, visit the beaches, explore the cities, visit ancient ruins! There's some much we can explore out there Kairi!" Kairi's heart beats against her chest in anticipation, and she has to say with a giggle in her voice "Quit it Shina! My heart can't handle the anticipation!"_

_Shina stops immediately and blushes, saying to her sister after a chuckle "Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your heart with that sis! At least we have each other to pass the time until we are old enough to go to Earth!" Kairi nodded her head in agreement twice, which is then followed by a voice calling out to the two happily "So you two are already making plans to leave your poor mother behind, hmm?" _

_Kairi and Shina look back and see their mom Auris walking towards them with her arms folded underneath her chest. Shina chuckled and said "Oh hi mom! We were catching the shooting star shower tonight before bed." Auris glanced at Shina and said to her "You know you two have school in the morning, so try not to stay out for too much longer."_

_The two sisters laugh mischievously, and after Auris decides to sit down on the ground to the left of Kairi she finds herself being asked by her younger daughter "Mom, have you ever gone down to the Earth before?" Auris glanced to the right and saw the anticipating glares of her two daughters, leading to her replying "I've been down there a couple of times before. It's a beautiful planet, and the humans look exactly like us. You'll fit right in down there once you come of age."_

_Auris then looked towards the shooting stars, but now the sky was also graced by the presence of the bright northern lights, which waved across the sky in a lovely manner. "The northern lights…Or the Aurora Borealis, as the humans call it." Auris stated, followed by Kairi asking "Why are they named after our last names, mommy?" "Sheer coincidence Kairi, nothing more, nothing less." Auris replied quickly._

_As the family enjoyed the sight of the northern lights and the shooting stars, Auris suddenly stated to her daughters "There is only one thing more impressive to watch than a shooting star in the sky…And that is a comet passing by the planet." "A comet? I heard that's like a bigger shooting star, right?" Shina inquired, leading to Auris nodding her head and saying "I've seen many comets before in my life. Some as bright as a small sun, some rainbow in color…But only once did I see a comet make it's way right through the planet's atmosphere."_

"_Really? What happened to it?" Kairi inquired, and Auris shrugged her shoulders and said "Only the humans would know. It fell towards the planet roughly seven years ago. Perhaps when you go to Earth, you could learn more about it…" Kairi and Shina look at each other with smiles on their faces, with Shina saying "That sounds like something interesting to investigate. That'll be the first thing we do when we go down! And that's a promise!"_

The word promise echoes in the mind of Kairi in the present day as she currently sits down on the cold steel floor with her legs kneeled together. Her contemplative state is broke as a loud sipping noise is heard in front of her, leading to her widening her eyes and looking at Mew in annoyance as he can be seen sipping from a soda can. "Do you MIND?!" Kairi exclaimed angrily, and Mew pulled the can away from his mouth while stating "Oh? You finally snapped out of whatever trance you were in? You were taking so long that I went back down to Mars' chamber and grabbed a soda."

Kairi closed her eyelids and grumbled a bit before murmuring "You could've at least grabbed me one." "I did. Here you go!" Mew said before using his mental grasp on the can sitting to the left of him to lift it up and give it to Kairi, since his right arm was still out of it and his left one was used to hold onto his own can. Kairi widened her eyes in surprise and then grabbed the can from the air with one hard swipe of her arm, and once she brought it close to her mouth Mew advised her nonchalantly "Tap the side to get rid of the fizz build-up. Unless you're fine with soda in your face."

Kairi lifts her eyes up briefly and glares at Mew before following his advice and tapping the can, pulling the lid off and hearing a little bit of fizz come out before she raises the can up to her face and drinks from it. After enjoying the soda, Kairi looks at Mew's right arm and asks "So are you feeling any better yet?" Mew nudges his limp arm slightly and says "I told you it's going to be a while before it's back to normal…But I can at least move my arm around an inch or so."

Mew then places his soda can down and lays his left arm atop his criss-crossed legs and said happily "So what do you want to talk about during this break Kairi?" "What? You got nothing to say yourself? No training tips, nothing?" Kairi inquired with a bit of surprise in her voice, and Mew shrugged to the best of his ability before remarking "Eh, I might be able to think of something in a bit, but I figured it'd be better to let you start up the discussion this time."

"Seriously? Ok fine, I got some pretty big questions to ask you then." Kairi said with an eager look in her eyes, followed by Mew saying "Fire away then. I'll be open about whatever you want to ask." Kairi's mind starts grinding it's gears to come up with the first question right away, and she smiles as she points a finger past her grasped soda can and says "So when were you going to tell me you have a brother?"

"I kind of figured that'd be the first question. You know, I could've sworn I brought him up at some point." Mew said with a nonchalant smile on his face, with Kairi pointing out to him "With all this chaos that's happened in just a short amount of time, you can't blame me for forgetting one detail like that." Mew really had no defense for that and merely went right into explaining "Riiight…Anyways, as far as having a brother goes, Riku's kind of a special case."

"Should you really be saying that about your own brother?" Kairi remarked in a rather offended manner as she assumed Mew was calling his brother retarded, and Mew quickly caught onto that and shook his head before going into greater detail "No no no, Riku's not like that…I hope anyways. What I mean by 'special' is that, well…He's my clone." Kairi's eyes immediately widened upon hearing that, and she tells Mew bluntly "Ok, you know what, I have a very hard time believing that! You have a clone?!"

Mew just took her disbelief in stride and nodded his head before telling her "It's a special ability of the Elemental Overlord. We are able to create clones of ourselves. Going into all of the specifics would take a lot of time, but to put it simply…Riku is basically me with black hair, grey eyes and some different colored clothes, at least appearance-wise." Kairi then rolled her eyes around and said with quiet sarcasm "So basically 'original character, do not steal' made real, eh?"

"Well I mean you could say that…" Mew said with a slightly embarrassed rubbing of the back of his head, leading to him lifting his head up and saying "So you're probably wondering why I call him my brother now, right?" "Among other things, yeah." Kairi said with a befuddled look in her eyes.

"Well when I created Riku, I made a little distinction between him and I to make him his own person. He was created with a blank personality so he could develop into his own person independent of my influence…Though I did give him some of my memories so he wouldn't be completely clueless out there in the universe." Mew said, leading to Kairi stating "Oh yeah, Saturn said something about Riku being a well-known hero, right?"

"I'm glad to hear that's what resulted from sending him out into the universe. Riku went out to save all the other worlds out there while I stayed here and kept the people of Earth protected…And he seems to have succeeded a lot. And honestly, I couldn't be prouder of him." Mew said, followed by Kairi stating while using air quotes on a specific word "But wait…It sounds like you only knew your 'brother' for a day. Why are you proud of him?"

"What's wrong with being proud of someone even though you've only known them for a short period of time? I've known you for only a few hours, and yet I'm proud of you for how you handled our little training session." Mew said with a smile, and Kairi blushed a bit at the compliment before Mew stated "Riku's become his own person, his own type of hero out there. He might have been born as a clone, but I don't think it's wrong to call him my brother just because he wasn't born from the same mother as I."

"…Hmmm…I guess I'm not going to get anywhere arguing about this…" Kairi says while scratching her forehead out of irritation at the scenario, which is then followed by Mew gesturing his left hand out and stating "So what about you? Do you have any siblings that I haven't met yet?" Kairi immediately lifts her head up and blinks a couple times awkwardly, replying with a stuttering "N-No! I'm an only child."

Mew glared at her suspiciously, and Kairi knew right away that her nervousness and unconfident demeanor wouldn't make her lie believable. As such she forced herself to relax, gripping the tops of her knees with all her fingers before taking in a deep breath and saying quietly to Mew "Seriously, I do not have any siblings." It seemed to work to Kairi's advantage as Mew backed off on his glare and smiled, telling her gently as he laid his left arm down on his leg "Well, I don't think you'd be lying to me about something that important."

"_Oh thank god, he actually believed me. He doesn't need to know about Shina…" _Kairi remarked in her mind as she let out a quiet sigh past Mew's line of sight, while Mew thought to himself as he kept that smile perfectly on his face _"…I'll just leave this topic alone for now, she'll tell me when the time is right." _Kairi then looked at Mew and remarked with both arms folded behind her head "You know, I can't believe you got away with making a brother that looks exactly like you without your parents knowing."

Mew's expression suddenly becomes a bit melancholy without Kairi noticing, and she ends up going on to say nonchalantly "Hell, not just that. You have such incredible powers, your parents must be incredibly proud of you for helping the Earth out so much." Mew decided to stop the praise Kairi was throwing out to his parents for accepting his powers by bluntly telling her "Kairi, both of my parents have been dead for almost ten years now."

"W-What?" Kairi said in a surprised tone, the suddenness of Mew's comment taking her completely off-guard as Mew himself looks down and forces a smile onto his face, explaining to Kairi as she looks at him in utter disbelief "I've been living all by myself ever since I was barely a six-year old. I don't know if it's because of the trauma of the situation, but all I remember is that a natural disaster took my parents' lives. That's kind of a cruel irony when you consider that I would one day become the Elemental Overlord."

"…" Kairi could only hum to herself in a melancholic manner as she heard Mew explain himself, and Mew went further on by telling her with his head raised high and letting out a brief sigh "But nevertheless, since our planet has a 'no adoption' policy anymore, I was made to return to my home in the mountains and was given supplies very frequently to make sure I survived. That doesn't happen anymore these days, but with my powers I don't need their help anyways."

Mew then smiled a genuine smile and said to Kairi with his eyelids closed "Hey, look at me being a debbie-downer. I'm the dumbass who is supposed to make ya laugh with my stupidity, remember?" "H-Huh? Yeah…Yeah, I guess you are…" Kairi said, taken aback with a few winks of her eyelashes by Mew's sudden shift in temperament. Mew then gestured his left hand out and told Kairi "It's not like it's all too bad. I use my powers to stop natural disasters around the planet so other people don't suffer the same ordeal I did, and I'm able to keep myself entertained just fine with my powers."

"Now you are lying to me. It's ok to admit that you feel lonely, Mew…" Kairi stated with quiet bluntness, and Mew opened his eyelids and put on a neutral expression before hanging his head down a bit and stating "…Kairi, I'd love for my parents to be alive right now. I may not remember much of my childhood, but I'll never forget their kindness and happiness…That would be an impossibility. At the very least, I know they would be proud of me."

"…I just don't get it. What do you have to look forward to then when everything's said and done here today?" Kairi inquired while hanging her head and feeling a bit of pity towards Mew for being alone. "I'll just go back home and continue life as usual. No big deal honestly." Mew said with the utmost nonchalance in his voice, and all of a sudden Kairi leans forward and slams her hands against the ground to support herself while putting herself face-to-face with Mew before she exclaims "Cut this shit out! Why the HELL are you fighting this battle when you have nothing to gain from it besides a small change in your status quo?!"

Blinking only a bit at Kairi's blunt inquiry, Mew lifted his left hand up and puts two fingers to her forehead to push her back a bit while stating calmly "I do believe I explained myself a while back Kairi." Once Kairi was back to her original pose Mew laid his arm down and stated further while looking at her seriously "I'm fighting this battle because the Aurians are suffering under Gravitus' tyrannical rule. I'm fighting because it's the right thing to do in this situation. I'm fighting because this is a cause worth fighting for."

"That can't be all there is to it." Kairi stated with a glare, leading to Mew shrugging his shoulders and telling her "I said I'm a simple person. You seem to be forgetting a lot right now, Kairi. Look, it's really not that hard to figure out…All I want is for everyone else to be happy, and that is enough to make me happy. Since we're on the subject of what we fight for though…" Mew turns around Kairi's blunt inquiry on her by glaring up at her and saying "Are you actually just fighting to end your people's suffering, or is there a more personal reason for wanting to stop Gravitus?"

Kairi grit her teeth nervously and shook a bit as Mew appeared to see right through her, leading to Mew pulling back a bit and saying with a chuckle "Ah, I'm just pulling your leg. After all, you've clearly been honest about things with me so far. The blunt and honest Kairi would never hide anything from me." Kairi eased up a bit as Mew seemed to be straying away from the subject, but a part of her didn't believe that the boy's motives were that simple. As such, Kairi quickly worked out something she could say to make sure he wouldn't bring the issue up again later.

"W-Wait! There is a deeper reason behind me wanting to stop Gravitus." Kairi stated, faking an expression of hesitation as Mew raised his eyebrows and stated "Oh? Then go ahead and tell me." Kairi held a hand close to her chest and stated with a serious look in her eyes "Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to go down and visit the planet Earth for myself. But I know about how Gravitus always seeks out my mom's children for his own ends when they reach the age of 16...But because of the laws of our people, I can't go down to Earth until I'm 20. So not only do I want to stop Gravitus from making my people suffer, but I want to save my own life so I can get to see the planet Earth with my own two eyes."

Mew closes his eyelids and shrugged, telling Kairi nonchalantly "Can't say I have a problem with that, even if it is a little selfish." "Hrrrmmm…" Kairi growled a bit at the selfish comment Mew made, but then Mew perked his head up suddenly and said "Ok, you know what? I just had a brilliant idea. Once Gravitus is defeated, you should ask your mom to allow you to go down to the Earth right away. She kind of owes you a lot for keeping the truth about Gabriel from you."

"W-What?" Kairi was surprised that Mew was taking an investment in her desires to go to Earth, and she pulled back a bit with a confused twitch in her eyes before Mew stated "And hey, if you don't have the guts to ask that of your mother, then I'll do it for you. I got a few bones to pick with her anyways over this whole matter." Kairi thus stared blankly at Mew and said to him stoically "You're being completely serious, aren't you?"

"Why wouldn't I be? If you want to go to Earth now, you should be allowed to, no questions asked. Waiting for some arbitrary age limit is silly." Mew remarked while gesturing his left pointer finger out, followed by him telling Kairi upfront with a smile "And as an added bonus, I'll volunteer to be your tour guide across the planet. I'm pretty familiar with the Earth, after all."

"W-What? You can't be serious…" Kairi stated with embarrassment in her voice, her cheeks becoming a little redder as Mew suddenly lifts himself up off the ground and holds his left arm out, saying to Kairi "Come, stand up for a moment." Kairi hesitantly holds her hand out to take Mew's own, and with his help she slowly stands upright while looking him straight in the eyes. Mew then looks back at the portal to Saturn and says "You've been to five other planets so far, and you're going to be going to three more before we reach Gravitus. Your travel log would be pretty incomplete if you didn't get to see what the Earth has to offer too, wouldn't you say?"

Kairi admitted hesitantly "W-Well…Yes." Then Mew looked at Kairi and lightly nodded his head, telling her with the utmost honesty "Then it's no big deal now, is it? All we have to do is defeat the man terrorizing your people and we'll get you down to Earth in no time. You can trust me on this one Kairi, I promise I won't let you down here." Kairi paused in disbelief at Mew's kindness towards her, blushing a little bit more as she cracked a small smile, getting rather into the moment without any reason currently present to hate what is happening.

But then the word "promise" echoed inside of her head, not just from her sister Shina's voice, but from Mew's as well. As the two voices spoke that word repeatedly to her, Kairi's eyes widened and she looked down at the fact that she was still holding Mew's hand with a look of disbelief. "Oh my god…What am I doing here…?" Kairi stated in a very quiet but exasperated voice as she raised her other hand up and laid it against the side of her face, which was becoming increasingly distraught with each passing second.

She suddenly pulled her hand away from Mew's own and grabbed onto her wrist, holding both arms close to her chin as Mew looked at her and asked in a concerned and puzzled manner "Hey, are you ok?" Mew tries to approach Kairi, but Kairi suddenly takes a step back and screamed "Don't move another step closer! Don't touch me! Don't do anything!" She sounded very frightened, but considering how she was behaving moments ago Mew pulled his left arm back and asked calmly "Kairi, I'm not going to harm you. Just tell me what's going on."

Kairi panicked and looked back and forth at herself and Mew, shaking her head a few seconds later before closing her eyelids and biting her lower lip, murmuring out to Mew "This isn't how it's supposed to go…Why am I letting this happen to myself?" Mew looked very concerned about Kairi's current condition, but suddenly she lifted herself up and thrust her right pointer finger directly at Mew's face while tearing up a bit and exclaiming "I should still hate you! You, who came out of nowhere at my mother's request and took part in something that has nothing to do with you!"

"…Kairi…" Mew quietly said, followed by Kairi exclaiming to him "No! Don't try and tell me to calm down! I'm not acting crazy here! I-I don't need your promises! I don't need your kindness! I don't need any of it!" Mew folded his arms together despite the pain it would cause him and grumbled a bit, closing his eyelids as he says to Kairi calmly "…You can at least tell me what suddenly brought this on, Kairi."

"What brought this on? What brought this on?! Don't play ignorant with me Mew! Taking pity towards me when those Aurians were insulting me, preparing me juices from scratch, teaching me more on how to fight, making promises to me to help me fulfill my dreams?! I know what type of game you're playing here Mew!" Kairi exclaimed in a very accusing tone of voice, and Mew opened his eyelids to glare at her while stating "Then tell me…Tell me with your own lips just what I'm trying to do."

Kairi grits her teeth slightly and says to Mew "Y-Y-You're trying to get me to fall in love with you." Mew went quiet for a bit, leading to Kairi stating to him while continuing to brandish her finger out and giving him a scornful glare "…I shouldn't have been fooled into thinking you were any different from the other males up here. All of you think I'm just a broken girl who needs to be 'fixed' with love. Well I'm not broken! I'm perfectly fine!"

The tears welled up a bit more in her eyes as she continued to accuse Mew of his lechery, and Mew just stood there and took it all without saying a word at the moment. Kairi finally pulls her arm back and folds them both against her chest, leading to her saying with a distressed look in her eyes and a somber tone in her voice "I'm my own person…I can handle things in life on my own. I'll defeat the rest of the Planetary Aurians and Gravitus on my own, and then I'LL demand to go to Earth by myself. That's just how my life is meant to be, and I would really appreciate it if you would just get the fuck out of here and never come back, Mew."

Kairi then takes a moment to close her eyelids and deeply sigh before pulling her arms apart and walking right past Mew without paying him any mind, preparing to ascend the staircase to the next floor only for Mew to subtly push his right foot back and send out a little elemental energy towards the steel in front of the stairs, making it rise up as a thick wall to block Kairi's path. Kairi reeled back a bit in surprise, but then she clenched her right fist in frustration and held it up, throwing as hard of a punch as she could at the wall to try and break through.

Her punch manages to put a very thick dent into the wall, but in the process reddens Kairi's skin greatly as she pulls it out and quickly shakes it around in pain. Even worse, the dent is filled in in a matter of seconds, leading to Kairi grabbing onto her damaged hand while stating bitterly "Let me through, now!" Mew pulls his arms away and says to Kairi in a serious tone "If I let you go now you're going to lose to the next Planetary Aurian."

"No I won't! I'm just as strong as you are! I can handle anything else that gets in my way!" Kairi exclaimed before taking her other fist and attempting to punch through the wall, failing once more even though she made a bigger dent. Mew explained to her with a firm slanting of his eyebrows "You can't just ignore my advice now that you are angry at me Kairi. Remember how much trouble Mars was giving you even though you had the strength advantage? Have you not also been paying attention to how strong Jupiter and Saturn were?"

"…Grrrr…" Kairi growled as she realized that Mew was going to start bringing up legitimate points, and Mew went on to state "It's not going to get easier from here on out. If you want to defeat the remaining Planetary Aurians, you are going to need to fight smart, not aggressively, especially since you know nothing about what their powers are going to be like. And that's not even accounting for Gravitus' own strength."

"So what? Are you saying you refuse to leave because you don't believe I'm strong enough to succeed?!" Kairi inquired in a very offended tone, and Mew finally turned around and said firmly "I'm not leaving because it's better to be safe than sorry. On the off-chance that Gravitus proves too much for you to handle, it only makes sense that I stick around as back-up. Don't you understand what's at stake here Kairi? If Gravitus gains the ability to use the Neo Drive, he's going to bring harm to more than just your people."

"I-I-I'm not stupid! I know what's on the line! That's why I can't lose!" Kairi suddenly pulls her right fist back and infuses it with aura, punching once more into the wall with so much force that she actually manages to punch a large hole right through the steel. The aura around her fist shatters entirely, and Kairi panted a bit as she pulled her fist back. Mew didn't seal the hole up this time around, and instead let it be as he said "Do you feel a little better now?"

"…N-No…I'm still angry at you for your trickery." Kairi stated in a tired tone of voice, leading to Mew telling her honestly "I never tricked you. From the very beginning, all I've done was be myself. I saw someone who needed help, so I've helped them. If my actions were leading to you having feelings of love towards me, then you have my word that it was never my intention for that to happen. Like I said, I've been alone most of my life. I've rarely had contact with others, and even then I can say my experience with women is very, very minimal. Most of my knowledge comes from video games, anime, TV shows…And none of that can be considered reliable, really."

Mew then closed his eyelids and glanced down, telling Kairi in a somber tone "If my actions have made you uncomfortable, if you really despise the idea of loving me this much…Then you have my word that I won't give you any more advice, I won't make you anymore promises, I won't do anything besides follow you up the remainder of the pyramid." Mew then lifted his left arm up and dropped the steel wall, with Kairi looking at him with complete and utter surprise on her face after he does this.

"…So, shall we move on?" Mew inquired as he began to walk forward, and Kairi just nodded her head without saying a word, showing that she had no qualms with Mew's decision now. As the two began to go for the staircase, Mew suddenly was spoken to by a voice that had left him be for a while now, whose guttural voice echoes within his mind _"Fufufu…You think you are fooling my eyes, little Overlord? You think I have forgotten you bemoaning the lack of love in your life? I know your innermost desires, I know her disdain towards you hurts so very, very much…"_

"…" Mew was silent towards "D.'s" observations, and the demon took great joy in saying to him _"To think that you'd have such selfishness within you…Such is the desperation of man in the end, to do nothing but live, fight, and love. Fufufu…In many ways, that's why humans and demons are the same. I look forward to seeing how far your desperation will take you, my little puppet…" _The demon then stopped speaking to Mew, who felt some pain in his beating heart as he grit his teeth slightly at "D.'s" words…

_Next Time: A Winter Wonderland_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Threat of the Frostbite**

After the heated affair between Mew and Kairi down in Saturn's chamber, the two climb up the stairs to reach the next Planetary Aurian. Along the way, Mew said nothing to Kairi, but he was smiling a bit out of nonchalance as he walked. Kairi walked beside him and noticed his smile, but was bothered a bit by his lack of words. Kairi took a bit of a breath in without making a sound and wanted to say something, but stopped herself by closing her mouth and pouting her cheeks out a bit.

She then looked away from Mew and thought to herself _"What am I doing? This is exactly what I wanted…He's not trying to trick me into loving him anymore." _She looked at Mew again with a somber expression and then thought to herself _"…So why do I feel like the asshole here?" _Mew didn't seem to be paying any attention to Kairi's expressions, leading to her shaking her melancholy away with a few light head swings.

"_No Kairi, no! This is just part of his plan. He WANTS me to feel guilty so I'd admit I was wrong, and then he'd accept my apology in hopes that I would just accept being his long. Hmph, well I'll show him!" _Kairi goes between frustration and a smirk before she looks at Mew and tells him "You know, I meant what I said back there. I'm not going to suddenly apologize for any of that." Mew glances over at Kairi for a moment with the same relaxed expression, leading to him stating as he looks back ahead "Ok then."

Kairi flinches a bit and then states "I-I mean it. Even once we're done with Gravitus, I'm not going to apologize for what I said." Mew once again replies with nonchalance by telling her "Hey, if that's what you want to do, who am I to stop you?" Kairi widens her eyes and grits her teeth before thinking to herself _"He's messing with me. There's no way he doesn't care about what I'm saying. No one is that nonchalant."_

Before they knew it, Mew and Kairi had already made it to the next chamber, and they were immediately greeted by falling snowflakes. The snowflakes dropped slowly from a layer of frosty clouds near the ceiling, and the floor was blanketed in about one inch of this snow. There were six gigantic snowmen near the walls, but there was something interesting about each snowman that Mew noted right away. "Hmmm, looks like someone's a fan of sweets." Mew said as he lifted off the ground and flew towards one of the snowmen.

Once he was close to the face of the snowman, he looks at one of the eyes and sees they are made out of gigantic chocolate chips. The smile on the snowman is made of licorice, and the nose is an elongated piece of candy corn. Mew's curiosity got the better of him and he took his finger to the 'skin' of the snowman, putting it into his mouth and letting out a tasty sounding hum before he plucks his finger from his lips and says with some excitement in his voice "Vanilla ice cream. This isn't snow…It's actually vanilla ice cream!"

"What? Seriously? Why?" Kairi stated in confusion, and Mew just shrugged his shoulders and descended to the ground before stating "Don't look to me for an answer, I said I wasn't going to give you anymore of those. If you want some…" Once Mew lands on the ground in front of Kairi he points his left hand behind himself after crossing it in front of his body, guiding Kairi's attention towards the portal at the other end of the room, and an ice wall stood behind that as Mew commented "Then you know where to go."

Kairi immediately crosses her arms and puts on a battle-ready expression before telling Mew off with "Then that's where I'm going to go! I'll defeat the next Planetary Aurian, get the answers I want, and show you that I don't need your help at all!" Kairi then kneels down and dips her hand into the ice cream floor, scooping it up and plunging it all right into her mouth to swallow it all in one bite, all without getting any brain freeze. Mew blinks his eyelids twice as Kairi looks smugly at him, and once she was done eating Kairi pumped her fist against her chest twice and said "Yeaaah…" in an overly quiet but pumped up tone.

Mew just stepped aside and gestured his arms out towards the portal while saying nonchalantly "You first then." Kairi just gives Mew and irritated glare that follows him until she has walked past, and then she focuses on ahead and ran straight for the portal, leaping into it before Mew followed her in as well. The two make the jump through time and space again until they land down onto the next planet, though instead of landing on a planet's surface the two are surprised when they land on top of perfectly solid ice cream.

"W-What the hell?" Kairi stated as her shoes sunk a bit into the surface of the ice cream, while Mew looked around and noticed that there were valleys and mountains filled with ice cream across the entire planet, allow of them composed of different flavors ranging from vanilla to mint chocolate chip. There were also streams of differing syrups flowing out in the distance, all of them converging towards a whirlpool far away. And most curiously of all, Uranus had a pure white atmosphere. "I know Uranus is considered a frozen planet, but this feels like overkill…" Mew commented with some confusion in his tone of voice.

Kairi ignores Mew and then looks on ahead, and she raised her eyebrows out of curiosity as she sees a figure moving around in the ice cream landscape. "That must be the Planetary Aurian. Just stick back and watch how I handle this one, Mew, and be impressed by what I've learned!" Kairi exclaimed excitedly before she sprinted across the ice cream towards the figure, with Mew exclaiming sarcastically with his hands cupped around his mouth "I'll prepare the thunderous applause!"

Mew then stepped forward to go catch up with Kairi, but along the way he pressed his right foot against the ground hard and felt something odd underneath all the ice cream. There was a solid object underneath all of the ice cream, and it didn't feel like some type of topping. Mew made his expression more serious and decided to keep a note of that odd sensation as he moved forward to go to where Kairi was currently at.

Kairi stopped running once she had caught up to where the Planetary Aurian was, but she was completely taken aback by the appearance of the person. The Planetary Aurian was a small child barely five feet tall with snow white skin and bright green eyes. She wore a fluffy blue jacket with white cotton around her down the center and around the bottom and sleeve ends, where the jacket was big enough to reach down to her kneecaps. She also wore tiny black jeans and elf-like slippers, and a ice-blue ice cream cone crown atop her curled up purple hair. In her right hand was a magic staff whose jeweled orbs looked like ten different flavors of ice cream bunch together, and as the little girl kneeled on the ground she could be seen using her magic staff to make six-inch tall figures made of ice cream that danced around for her amusement.

The little girl swung her head back and forth and smiled while she had fun for a few seconds until she looked up and saw Kairi standing next to her. The girl's expression becomes bright as she cheerfully stated "Hi big lady! Have you come to play with me here on Uranus?" Her voice was dripping with innocence and joy, and hearing it all left Kairi's heart in a flutter unexpectedly, leading to her laying a hand against her chest and letting out a drawn out "Awwwww…"

She then turned her head around and looked smugly at Mew, telling him upfront "At least this little girl knows how to treat a woman with respect." Mew responds nonchalantly "She's impressionable at that young of an age. No big deal really." Kairi just scowls with a 'humph!' coming out before she looks back at the little girl and kneels down to look at her, stating to her kindly "Sorry little Uranus…But I'm going to have to fight you, not play with you."

"Is that so? Awww…How terrible…I rarely get to play with others here." The Planetary Aurian said with a saddened look in her eye, but then she takes her magic staff and taps the figures of ice cream she had made to put them back into the ground. She then stands up and holds his staff in both hands, holding it diagonally atop her left shoulder while smiling and saying to Kairi "I'll have some fun with you then. Hehehe."

Kairi nods her head and stands up herself, reaching for her belt to pull out her staff before saying to Uranus in an adoring tone "I'll be activating the Rite of Singularity now, so you won't have to worry about that dummy behind me getting in the way of our battle." Mew adds-on to that comment by telling Uranus nonchalantly "It's ok, Kairi's a big girl and she can handle battles all on her own now." All the while Mew shrugged his left shoulder as Kairi looked back and glared at him again.

Once Kairi turned back to look at Uranus, the girl said to Kairi "He's a meanie man, isn't he?" Kairi nodded her head without hesitation, but then sounded a bit jealous of Uranus' situation as she told her "At least you won't ever have to deal with anything like that. You get to be young and innocent forever." Uranus smiled and giggled at that comment, and then with her right hand she grabs onto her staff and steps back, swinging it gently outward to send sprinkles of barely visible aura into the ground.

In a few seconds, a couple of seven foot tall golems made out of pure vanilla ice cream rise up from the surface of the planet and stand tall between Uranus and Kairi. The heads of the golems open up, with teeth made of gumdrops and two tongues of chocolate pieces being formed in the mouth as their eyes are made out of tons of M&amp;M pieces. The ice cream in their hands spread out enough to create four bulky fingers, and their feet stay attached perfectly into the ground.

Kairi looks up at the golems and their innocent smiles, but then looks between them and sees Uranus swaying herself back and forth while wrapping her magic staff in both arms, telling Kairi in a sing-song voice "My friends are a part of me~. So it doesn't break the rules of the Rite of Singularity~." Kairi nods her head and holds her staff out beside herself with both hands, commenting to the little girl "I don't have a problem with that. So, are you ready to fight then?"

Uranus happily nodded her head three times, followed by Kairi grasping her staff tightly and grinning before saying "Ok, then I'm not going to be holding back. Lets go!" Kairi then suddenly leaps into the air and goes right over the two golems, knowing better than to waste time with them and instead landing right behind Uranus, who widens her eyes in surprise before turning around just as Kairi thrust her staff forward while covering it in aura.

But before Kairi's staff attacks, one of the golems switches the side it's face is on and then plunges it's right hand into the ground, making a fist of solid ice cream rise up and hit Kairi's feet in order to knock her right up into the air. Uranus watches Kairi get flung back and giggles, but instead of falling onto her butt Kairi calms her beating heart with a deep breath and then activates her flight to levitate herself just a few inches above the ground.

She then places both of her feet down and looks at the two golems as the one that attacked her lumbers forward to get in front of Uranus, groaning deeply like an innocent monster like it should. Kairi holds her staff in her right hand and closes her eyelids a bit, focusing on the golem and noticing that there was a structure of aura within the golem's body that was keeping it together. Kairi opened her eyes and thought to herself as she kneeled down a bit _"So she's controlling them with her aura…That must be her ability."_

Kairi got the idea to disconnect the golem from the ground by sprinting forward, getting right in front of the creature and waiting for it to throw it's right fist down so she can leap to the right and swipe her staff out in front of her while using aura to turn the tip into a miniature blade. With it she is able to cut down the left leg of the golem and offset the balance of the beast and make it fall towards it's side while letting out a distressed bellow.

Kairi leaps over the falling golem after she lands on the ground and tries to go for Uranus as the girl curiously blinks at Kairi's actions. The other golem goes to Uranus' defense by bending down and holding it's arm around Uranus' body, sealing her up in a solid cave of ice cream while it keeps it's head up and open it's mouth, a frosty-sweet sparkling beam of energy forming in it's mouth as Kairi descends from the air. The crinkling of frost can be heard as the beam is fired off at Kairi.

Kairi defends herself by holding her staff back in both hands and using her aura to create a rounded barrier in front of her body that defends her from the beam. Kairi holds herself in mid-air to prevent the beam from pushing her back, and once the golem had used up all of it's energy it holds it's mouth shut and pants a bit out of tiredness. Uranus lifts her head up and pokes the underside of her golem with her magic staff, telling it "Are you ok? You should go get some rest before you push yourself too hard."

But before the golem could sink back into the ground, Kairi continues her early attack by plunging her staff right through the golem's teeth and sending out a burst of aura through the front of the staff that goes inside of the golem and explodes, making it's ice cream body scatter out across the surface of the planet, some of it going down onto Uranus' body. Uranus' expression twitches a bit as the ice cream splatters across her body, and she hung her head down a bit appearing ready to cry.

Kairi spun herself forward and brought her staff down towards Uranus' head, but before Kairi's attack connected Uranus' aura starts to appear around her body and holds Kairi's staff in place. The aura was thick and a dark red-purple color, and it seems as though Kairi's assumption about the ability of Uranus' aura was wrong as it didn't take long for the front of Kairi's staff to become consumed with a deep layer of ice. The ice stretches down to the surface of the planet and holds Kairi's staff in place, and Kairi grunts to try and pull her staff free from the ice while standing on the ground.

Uranus suddenly starts laughing a bit in a rather unhinged manner and says quietly "You want to play with my friends in such a rough manner? You want to play rough…with me?" Uranus suddenly lifts her head up, where her eyes have become absolutely engrossed in a widened frenzy as she grins an unnaturally wide grin and swings her magic staff upward, leading to her proclaiming in an incredibly unfitting, shrieking but youthful voice "Then let's play rough you pig-headed bimbo!"

Uranus' magic staff then glows brightly, and Kairi feels the ground below her feet trembling as she just lets out a disbelieving "W-What the…?" at Uranus' sudden flip in personality. Kairi turns her head around and sees the golem she knocked down earlier start to get back up, but it only made it halfway before all of a sudden six sharps claws made out of pretzels plunge themselves into the center of the poor golem's body and rip it to shreds, revealing behind it three giant gruesome creatures with frosted pretzel arms as long as their bodies and legs made firm with peppermint. The creature's faces were distorted and cracked, the crevices all filled with black licorice as the front most creature hissed out with a tongue of half-frozen strawberry syrup as it pushed the remains of the golem into the ground.

The three creatures towered over Kairi and began to approach her together, and with a surprised look in her eyes Kairi grabs onto her staff with both of her hands and gives it one desperate tug to rip it free from the ice and swing herself around to face the three dessert titans. The first one swings it's right claw down in a flash, giving Kairi only enough time to leap back and take flight while slipping between the claws of the beast. Even though pretzels could be considered a brittle building block, Kairi noticed that the titans had a small layer of Uranus' aura around them to increase their defensive power and thus make them harder to topple.

Kairi grit her teeth as the titan that attacked her snarled, but while focusing on the other one she lost track of the other two, thus making it a surprise when one of them leaped up slightly and tried to clap both of it's hands together to grab onto Kairi. Kairi let out a gasp of shock before pulling herself together just in time to get a thick enough bubble of aura around her body to prevent the titan from grabbing her. The hands of the titan rebound off of Kairi's protective bubble and cause shockwaves to go through it, and Kairi follows up on that by leaning back and spinning her staff around in a circle while keeping it out at maximum length.

While cutting through her own bubble of aura, Kairi also manages to get a good hit right through the center of both of the titan's hands, breaking right through the aura and pretzels and making the claws of the titan fall, scattered across the ground as the beast lands and makes the ice cream ripple a bit. The titan bends down to rebuild itself, and Kairi prepared to attack it without paying attention to her surroundings. Thus is comes as a great surprise to her when all of a sudden a waterfall of melted ice cream composed of the three main flavors pours down on top of her, all of it being so heavy that it drags her right down onto the ground while splattering ice cream all across it.

As the ice cream comes off of her, Kairi coughs some of it out of her mouth, but was relieved that she was able to get some aura around the rest of her body before the ice cream drenched her clothes. Uranus cackled all too happily at Kairi getting consumed by her ice cream waterfall, and she tilted her head to the side while having a maddened gleam in her eyes as she told Kairi "Aww what's the matter you little whore? Was that a little TOO sticky for your liking? Hahahaha! Drown in my tasty treats you wench!"

Kairi quickly pushes herself onto her feet and swallows the last bit of ice cream in her mouth without a care, saying to Uranus with a bit of anger in her voice "Ok…I think you've had a little too much sugar. Lets get rid of that pent up energy, hmmm?" Kairi tries to leap right at Uranus as fast as she could while holding her staff in a way that she'd be able to strike right down at the girl from an angle, but Uranus just sticks her tongue out and points her staff at the ground, which causes the ice cream below her feet to melt and become a small wave that Uranus rides backwards to get out of the way of Kairi's attack.

As Kairi is left plunging her staff into the melted ice cream, all of it frozen back up at Uranus' command as she stands atop an elevated platform of ice cream. Kairi had to grab hard onto her staff and tug onto it to pull it out of the ground, but as she stumbled back a bit Uranus said to her titans "Rip her apart! Tear her clothes, cut her face, do whatever it takes to hurt her little whore feelings!"

"_Is this girl for real?" _Kairi thought to herself while swinging her staff around once, not at all taking Uranus' words seriously and instead being more concerned with her insanity. Kairi turns around and swings her staff out to destroy the pretzel claws that were thrown at her like projectiles from the titan who she broke them off of, but said titan had already reformed his own claws. Kairi noticed that there were only two titans in the area at the moment, and both of them were standing right in front of her while snarling violently.

Kairi also noticed that the sky had started to become a hazy dark chocolate color, making the area darker than it was before, obviously as a result of Uranus' strange powers. Kairi then feels the ground rumble up beneath her, and knew that the third titan was preparing to attack her from below. Kairi flies up quickly as the claw of the titan rips through the ground and clamps the air, failing to hit it's target as it pulls the rest of it's body from the ground with it's other hand while roaring out in frustration.

The other two titans try to take advantage of the third one's failure by lunging their claws out at Kairi while she's floating in midair. She swerves around the claws and swings her staff out to break off the right arm of the right titan, but the left titan grabs the other titan by the face and pushes it aside while opening it's mouth wide and unleashing a cone-shaped blast of pure black frost while his scream rips through the atmosphere.

Kairi's body is covered in a thin layer of black frost before she gets her barrier of aura around her body to protect herself fully, leading to the sphere being wrapped in a thick, weighted layer of frost before the titan stopped. The third titan then got between it's brethren and knocked them both to the ground with a violent push of it's elbows before bringing it's right claw down towards the iced sphere and slicing it apart, with a couple of the claws breaching the bottom of Kairi's shirt and cutting into her skin.

She grunts in pain as her heartbeat's pace increased, and some blood starts to leak out from the scars on her stomach, all of it slowed only by the cold in the air. Kairi then flew back a bit and thought to herself while glancing back at Uranus as she was in the middle of snickering with her frenzied expression _"I shouldn't be dealing with these titans…But they are too big to ignore while I go after Aurian Uranus." _

Kairi looks back at the titans as all three of them stand up and prepare to attack, with all of them regrowing any lost body parts they had, leading to her thinking to herself as she holds her staff in her right hand and holds her left arm over her scars _"Come on…What would Mew do in-…Idiot, you shouldn't be looking to him for inspiration, he'd just melt the titans and defeat Uranus easily. I have to think of things from my own perspective and nothing else." _

Kairi then flips back through the air to dodge the claws of the titans and lands on the ground, then pulls her left hand away from the already nearly dried blood and goes for her Beast Tamer Drive, tapping down on it to activate it, which causes her aura to change as her weapon becomes a whip. With the titans looming over her, Kairi quickly summons forth an aura tiger and whips it once to increase it's size before casually pointing her left pointer finger up at the titans and saying "You deal with these, I'll go after little miss sunshine behind me."

The tiger nodded it's head and then leaped right at the central titan, using it's girth and strength to push it right down into the ground, where it violently tears into it with it's claws to keep it from retaliating. Meanwhile, Mew looks on at the scene as Kairi lashes her whip out and turns around to run at Uranus, and with a couple nods of approval her murmurs "Now that's more like it Kairi…I knew you had it in you."

Uranus widens her eyes in disbelief that Kairi was able to distract her three titans, but before Uranus was struck the girl grinned and giggled rapidly in place as her aura flared up around her. Kairi didn't flinch and swung her whip out to the right after stamping her feet down, keeping a stern expression as Uranus said during this whole process "You stupid little bitch! Your dominatrix tactics won't work on me! You're nothing but boobs and no br-"

Suddenly, Uranus is smacked right in the cheek by Kairi's whip, making the girl get knocked right onto the side of her body with a very noticeable red bruise imprinted onto the skin. The crown on her head is dropped onto the ground in front of her, and Kairi pulls her whip back to her and holds it down beside herself while laying her other hand on her hip and looking down at Uranus as the girl pushes herself up off the ground and looks absolutely livid at what just happened.

Uranus quivers as she turns to look at Kairi, and she bites her bottom lip as she murmurs out "Y-You cheating little skank! There's no way you-" "Could've bypassed that aura of yours? Of course I could, I figured out your trick pretty quickly." Kairi stated calmly with confidence as she looked down at Uranus. Tilting her head slightly to the left, Kairi explained to the bewildered Uranus "Your aura is based around creating a field of absolute zero temperatures. It's basically a stronger version of Mercury's aura. But the problem with your aura is that it can't affect stronger auras, and so I coated my whip in my aura so I could bypass it with my attack."

"W-What?!" Uranus exclaimed in an absolutely unfitting, shrieking tone that nearly made it seem like her voice would go hoarse right after. Kairi then pointed at Uranus with her left hand before telling her calmly "And by the way, I'm not stupid. I've just let myself get too caught up in my own anger, and that idiot back there is responsible for a lot of it." As Kairi gestures back at Mew, Uranus states to her "N-No! You are stupid! Stupid stupid stupid big-titted skank!" Uranus childishly pounds her right fist against the ground while keeping that same unsettling, maddening expression on her face.

"If you really think those insults are going to affect me, then stop. I've heard them plenty of times before from many others, and it doesn't hurt at all to hear those same insults coming from some insane little child." Kairi calmly stated, followed by her extending her whip out and gently lashing it against her other palm while Uranus starts to stand up and states "Y-You're weak! You're a weak and useless poopy-head!"

"Maybe I was before. I focused too much on power and not enough on other techniques because I thought it was enough just to be the strongest you could be. You know, I call him a dumbass…And no doubt about it, he really is one of the biggest ones I've ever met, but you'd be surprised to know he's a pretty good teacher when it comes to battling. Now then…" Kairi whips her weapon against the ground with all of her might, putting on a justifiably confident look on her face as she tells Uranus "You've been a very bad girl Uranus, and it's time for a spanking."

As Uranus throws her crown back onto her head, she jumps up and down repeatedly and stamps the ground hard enough to crack it, all the while throwing a tantrum as she exclaimed to Kairi "How dare you, you little shitstain cockmongler! You think you can punish me?! You think you are my precious mommy?!" Uranus pulls her head up with her right hand as she continues to jump up and down, her pupils shrinking down to dots as she laughs maniacally and exclaims at the top of her lungs "HAHAHAHAH! You know what I do to little insolent shits like you?!"

Uranus suddenly swung her magic staff at the ground and landed down, pulling her hand away from her face by swinging it out to herald in two frozen blocks of ice from the ground. Kairi was caught off-guard with fright as she looked in the ice blocks and saw frozen people inside of it. "W-What the hell?" Kairi spoke out as Uranus said in a giddy tone of voice "Say hello to your people you little bitch! Oh, but don't enjoy them being around for long cause…"

Uranus swings her magic staff out in an arc in front of her and hits both frozen blocks with her magic, and all of a sudden the frozen expressions of distraught were replaced with two gigantic cannons made out of an ice-cream cone bowl and a licorice rope. Both Kairi AND Mew were disturbed by this act, with Mew in particular gritting his teeth and remarking "So that's what's going on here…What the hell is wrong with this girl?"

"What have you done to them?!" Kairi demanded to know in an absolutely offended tone of voice. Uranus sneered with the utmost madness in her eyes as she explained "Oh I'm sorry little miss calm tits, I thought you weren't going to get angry during battle anymore? If you want to know so badly, I turned your little predecessors into ice cubes and then used my magic to make most of them into desserts! How do you think I created this fucking amazing wonderland anyways, by jacking off some stupid ice cream truck driver?!"

"S-So all these desserts you have…" Kairi stated as the horrifying realization of this scenario came to her mind, but Uranus just smiled with her head up as high as it could be as she explained "My magic allows me to turned inanimate objects into desserts! And then I can control those desserts to my heart's content! And if those inanimate objects happen to be frozen life forms, then why should I fucking care?! At least then I don't have to eat their icky, bloody flesh!"

Kairi just glares at Uranus at that point and said "Ok, that's it, I'm stopping you here and now." Uranus laughs at that remark before proclaiming "Try it bitch! Catch me if you can, pudgy tits!" Uranus then turns around and starts running away, and before Kairi can run after her the cannons Uranus created fire concentrated beams of frost at her to keep her in place. Kairi decides instead to leap over the beams and take flight after Uranus, only for the girl to have converted two more blocks of ice into cannons that fire straight up at her.

This is then followed up by seven more cannons being created from blocks of ice, and Uranus managed to get out of sight relatively quick as Kairi dropped to the ground and used her whip to break all of the cannons apart, feeling guilty even though the bodies inside of the converted ice blocks were already long dead. Once the cannons were gone, Kairi lifted herself up and looked around for any signs of Uranus' presence. "Where did she go now?" Kairi pondered calmly.

Kairi then finds herself getting off balance a bit as the ground rises upward slightly beneath her feet, and looking on ahead Kairi sees something rising up very far away. It was an absolutely gigantic mound of ice cream, one far bigger than all the mountains on the planet combined. As this gargantuan ice cream mound continues to rise up, the sky splits open and reveals the starry depths of space beyond the planet, and the front of the mound opens up to reveal a towering maw of black licorice as it's eyes were formed out of gigantic raisins.

The monster summoned forth two thick arms that slammed against the ground beside it to stabilize itself as it looked down at Kairi. Kairi was nothing but a speck to the monster, and as Kairi thought to herself _"Ok…This isn't a good sign…" _Uranus suddenly proclaimed in a very echoing tone of voice "Time to get rid of you once and for all! I'm going to enjoy turning you both into ice blocks! I'll then cut off your tits and turn them into sundaes, I'll slice off your boyfriend's frozen dick and turn it into a candy cane, and then I'll spend my time licking every last bit of your bodies after I turn them both into ice cream you miserable little shitstains! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The beast then opens it's mouth wide and starts to charge up an energy attack, and Kairi felt an incredible chill in the air as she noticed the energy was the same color as Uranus' aura. Uranus was going to put everything she had into deep freezing Kairi, and quite possibly Mew as well judging by her comments. "I have to stop Uranus before she can launch that attack…" Kairi noted to herself, leading to her looking behind herself to see Mew just casually tapping his right foot on the ground while looking up at the monster.

"He's not going to be in any danger, but he can't stop the attack from hitting me because of the Rite of Singularity…" Kairi murmured to herself, and then saw as her aura tiger returned to her after finally dealing with all three titans. The creature was strong, but was just not big enough to deal with the monster. As the bellowing gale of frost whips through the planet from Uranus' beck and call, Kairi turns back towards the monster and closes her eyelids, her desperation leading her to at least try and discover where Uranus was within the monster's body.

A speck of aura reached out from the darkness, showing that Uranus was comfortably in the back of the monster's mouth. It was at that point that Kairi widened her eyes open and murmured to herself "I can't hesitate here. It's now or never…" Kairi dispels her aura tiger and replaces it quickly with her aura bear. Kairi turns around and points in front of her to get the bear into position, and without saying a word she whips the bear twice to greatly increase it's size. It was still an ant compared to the monster, but Kairi's plan here wasn't to use the bear to attack anyways.

Kairi leaps off the ground and stands on the bear's right palm, and after the creature and it's master share a nod of their heads Kairi turns around and lays down on top of the bear's palm so it could wrap it's gigantic claws around her body. The bear then pulls back on it's hand and aims right at the ice cream monster's open mouth, with Mew smiling and commenting "Clever move there Kairi…" before the bear thrust it's arm out with all it's might and threw Kairi through the air straight towards the mouth of the monster.

Kairi flew incredibly fast towards the monster, her heart racing as she wasn't used to flying at this speed. But she got the hang of it rather quickly and swung her whip out to the right, and she was confident that she would get into the mouth of the monster before the attack would fire off. Enjoying this high-speed flight, Kairi exclaimed "Wahooooo!" before plunging deep into the mouth of the beast and cracking through the back of it, which causes the monster to suddenly stop it's attack and widen it's eyes with a bellowing groan of surprise.

Kairi then breaks right out of the back of creature's head with Uranus caught in the grasp of her whip, her arms bound against the side of her hips as the girl flails about and proclaims "No no no! There's no way you could've gotten to me! Damn it damn it!" Kairi just takes the girl's remark of disbelief in stride as she tugs hard on her whip and states "Time for you to chill out!" With all of her strength going into the tug of her whip, Kairi is able to wrench Uranus back through the air so hard that it jerks on her body and sends her flying right through the sky like a shooting star, making her pierce right back through her now collapsing ice cream monster and eventually crash against the ground near where Kairi's aura bear was.

After at least thirty seconds, Kairi flew back down to where the Uranus had landed, where she finds that the girl had been thrown unconscious by the collision with the ground. Her crown had been knocked off and the staff was out of her hand, and with a sigh Kairi lifted her whip up prepared to finish the dangerous girl off while dispelling her aura bear. But before she did, the ground around Uranus suddenly lifts up, and two of those golems the girl had initially summoned appear in place.

One of the golems had folded it's right arm in front of it's body and created a circular bed that Uranus laid in on her back, and the golem rocked it's arm back and forth while the other one looked down at Uranus and let out a happy bellow. Kairi was confused by the actions of these golems and lifted herself off the ground, looking inside the little bed to find that Uranus was now fast-asleep, her arms resting atop her body as she had a peaceful smile on her face and snored gently.

The ice cream golem carrying her then raised a finger up to it's mouth and went "Shhhh" towards Kairi before looking back down at Uranus and turning itself around, it and the other golem walking away slowly as Kairi blinks a couple times in confusion, sighs at what she was about to do, and then turns her whip back to a staff before shrinking it down and placing it on her belt. She had won the battle, and she wasn't going to take the life of a child even knowing how dangerous she was. Kairi then dropped back onto the ground, where Mew was already there ready to say "You sure you made the right decision?"

Kairi flinched as she looked at Mew, and after a quick turn of her head she said while folding her arms together "It wasn't an easy one. You would have done the same thing and you know it." Mew gestured his right hand out and commented nonchalantly "Maybe. She did seem like a pretty big threat, but we don't know the full story here either." Kairi glances at Mew with a puzzled look and said to him "…You know, I thought you said you weren't going to do anything else with me for the rest of the trip up the pyramid…"

"Eh, it'd be a boring trip if I didn't say something every now and then. I'm still sticking to my guns on the other two things though…Not like it matters with advice, considering you handled that battle splendidly." Mew said with the utmost honesty in his voice while cracking a light smile, and Kairi blinked a couple times with her mouth slightly agape before finding herself needing to restrain from blushing as she told Mew "Yeah well…you weren't a crappy teacher. Especially since you got me to listen to what you had to say…"

"I'll take that compliment and say nothing else about it. By the way, you want me to clean out the blood on your stomach real quick?" Mew inquired, leading to Kairi turning to look at him after looking at how the blood from the scars had spread out to her shirt a bit. "…No soaking my body though." Kairi said with some reluctance, and Mew held his right hand out and commented "Not a problem. Sadly though, I won't be able to do anything about the shirt without taking the whole thing apart."

As Mew uses his powers to pull the blood from Kairi's shirt and skin with her flinch a bit from how the beginning of the action felt, Kairi herself turns her head aside a bit and tells him "Whatever, at least you're avoiding perversion." Once Mew had taken all of the blood out and crunched it down into nothingness, he flipped his hand around and created some aloe vera from his hand since it's connected to plants, and he floated it over to Kairi's scars and rubbed the stuff over them mentally while stating "Just making sure they don't end up getting infected."

Once he was done with the aloe vera, Kairi glanced towards the sky and said honestly "T-Thanks for the help there…" She was purposefully trying to avoid eye contact with Mew, but Mew just gestured his right hand out and told her "Not a problem. So, I think we should head back to the pyramid now. There's something I want to check now that Uranus is defeated." Kairi shrugged her shoulders while stating "Yeah whatever, I really don't feel comfortable being here."

Without any further waiting, Mew and Kairi walked back to the portal and took it back to the pyramid. Once they returned there, Mew immediately turned around and waited for the portal to move aside to raise his right hand up and prepare to melt down the ice wall. But to his surprise, the wall melts on it's own as a device in the center of it glows bright with heat. Mew raised his eyebrows and walked over to said device, noticing that it was an electronic tablet of some sort and plucking it from the air before it fell.

Kairi walked up beside Mew and looked at the tablet, and Mew commented as he tapped the button at the bottom of it "This must be Saturn's creation…" "What makes you say that?" Kairi inquired, and Mew quickly flipped the tablet around to reveal an engraving in the metal that said "Property of Saturn, Copyright ?" Kairi immediately backs off and lets Mew flip the tablet back around so he could see what was on the screen.

"It's a journal entry…Seems to be about Aurian Uranus. I'll read it out to you…" Mew said before getting to work on reading what is on the tablet. _"Data Log Number 258, Topic: Aurian Uranus (AKA Vivi). I've been doing a lot of research lately into the histories of my comrades, and I've become both disturbed and interested by Uranus' history the most. Uranus was born on a world of fire and frost, and on this world the people from the tribe of frost were looking to expand their territory, but lacked the strength to do so."_

"_So they planned to pool a lot of their power into a single being, one that would be easily controlled. They chose Uranus simply because her child-like mind would be the easiest of all to manipulate. Using a forbidden ritual after tricking the parents into bringing Uranus to their grasp, the frost tribe seemed to fail in their efforts at first…But nope, that is never the case in these mad rituals. Uranus' mind snapped from having so much power in her, splitting her personality into two halves, the child-like youth and the sadistic power-mad witch." _

"_This eventually led to her going so crazy that she froze everyone on the planet in solid blocks of ice, including her own parents. But from what I've seen, Uranus' powers work in more interesting but gruesome ways than that…She can turn any inanimate objects into a dessert with her magic. She carries around a staff, but I think that's just for show since I could've sworn I saw her use her powers without it. I shudder (admittedly in anticipation a bit) to think what would happen to planets themselves if they didn't move constantly…"_

"_I've run tons of diagnosis's on Uranus' body after knocking her unconscious with sedatives…But no matter what, I can't seem to find any permanent solution to her mental instability. At best, I am able to use the crown on her head to make her act perfectly normal for up to ten minutes, but otherwise she's stuck alternating between both of her personalities. I honestly don't know why she was made into a Planetary Aurian, but at the very least keeping her on Uranus prevents her from causing trouble."_

"_Other Notes: It's odd that the golems act so parental around Uranus and seem to be rather independent of her will…There's a slight possibility that the golems might be her parents transformed, but I can't confirm that fact with what I have now. Gravitus is the only one willing to approach Uranus too, and he's the only person Uranus has not chewed out…I guess it goes to show how brilliant of a man Gravitus is to handle someone like her…"_

After reading all the tablet had to offer, Mew flung it over his shoulder with a rather bothered looked in his eyes, and Kairi holds a fist against her chest and feels pity for Uranus as she comments "I feel like it would've been an act of mercy to kill her now…" Mew tells Kairi while glancing over her way "It's like you said though…Neither of us can bring ourselves to kill a little girl. But if she does ever cause trouble on others worlds, then we'll have no choice but to kill her."

"You know, that tablet has got me thinking though…A planet of frost and fire…I wonder if Mercury came from that same world?" Kairi pondered, and Mew turned towards the stairs downward and commented jokingly "I can run down about seven floors and go ask them if you want." Kairi immediately and bluntly told Mew "No! We'd just be wasting our time if you did that."

"Which is exactly why we're going to head up those stairs, forget about Uranus' predicament for now, and fight the last two Planetary Aurians." Mew said while turning to face Kairi and gesturing both of his arms towards the staircase leading up to the next floor. Kairi sighed and said "Another gas giant and the coldest planet in our solar system…Gah, I really hope being on Uranus didn't turn me off from desserts." Mew giggled at that as he turned and began to head up the staircase, and Kairi looked at him in disbelief before following him up and saying "That's not funny at all…"

_Next Time: An Unexpected Locale_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Welcome to Casino Neptune**

Mew and Kairi climb the stairs to the next chamber in the Sages' Pyramid without saying a word to each other, leading to them eventually coming across a rather dully presented hallway. It was very generic in appearance, carrying the standard design aesthetics one would come to expect from the area. The only thing that was indicative of what the next Planetary Aurian was like was the fact that the portal to their planet was guarded by a pair of thick, bright, pure gold doors that had a window on the front of it capable of showing the portal behind it.

The two of them walked over to the golden doors and stood in front of them, and the second thing that caught Mew's attention was that there was a small terminal with a button and a slot near the left corner of the doors. Mew walked over to the terminal and pressed the button, and immediately a "ding!" rung through the room as a small ticket popped out of the slot. Mew immediately pulled the ticket out and lifted it up in front of his face, finding that it was gold with a platinum border but had nothing else on it.

"Ok, I'm completely lost right now…What's up with this thing?" Mew inquired while moving the ticket around with his fingers, making sure that he wasn't missing any detail on the ticket. Kairi didn't take long to snatch the ticket from Mew's grasp and look it over herself while lifting it high above her head, leading to her commenting "I really have no idea what's going on with this. We've never had our way to the portal blocked before now."

Suddenly, the door lets out a few "pssshs" of air and starts to slide open from both halves, making the two of them look at it as the way to the portal opens perfectly. "I guess we needed to take this ticket out to get entrance to Neptune. Seems kind of unnecessary, really." Kairi remarked as she just tucked the ticket away into her right pocket. Mew shrugged his shoulders and began to head towards the portal, but before he even got close enough to where the doors were something rather unexpected happen as someone exited through the portal slowly.

It was a young woman with pure pink skin that had short scales on her arms. She wore a classy white butler suit with short cuffed sleeves and a pink bowtie right at the bottom of her neck. She had decent sized breasts and fingernails painted black with a bit of a pointed tip to them. Her pants fit her a little loosely and had a bit of a beige tint to them, and a brown leather belt with some spikes on them fit around her waist. She had sleek golden bowler shoes and black cotton socks on her feet, and her very clean hair was long and colored purple-red like a rose. Her earrings were shaped like fangs and made of silver, and she wore a small diamond ring on her right ring finger. The only other features that could be noted were some freckles on her cheeks and a slightly irregular looking nose.

At the moment, this mysterious woman had an arm crossed in front of her chest and her eyelids were closed. She stopped where the doors once were closed together and bowed her head forward slightly, saying in a quiet but respectful manner "We've been awaiting your arrival, Sir Mew, Lady Kairi." The woman opened her eyelids slowly and saw the two face-to-face with a stoic expression, revealing that she had green eyes with rather draconic pupils. Kairi was rather surprised by the woman's appearance and immediately inquired "You're Aurian Neptune?"

The woman smiled a bit and said "I am not. But I will be taking you both to where she is momentarily." As the woman tilted her head back and forth a bit and looked at the hands of her two guests specifically, Mew inquired "Something the matter?" The woman closed her eyelids and said politely "I am going to need the two of you to take a ticket from the terminal before we can proceed."

Mew looked at Kairi briefly and said "Well, Kairi already has one. I guess I'll go get another one for myself." Mew did exactly that in a matter of seconds, leaving the woman to say "Now we may enter the portal. Stay close by, otherwise you might get lost." The woman then turned around and entered through the portal, and as Mew and Kairi share a genuinely equal look of confusion on their faces they shrug their shoulders and then go through the portal after the woman. After a leap through time and space, the two end up in a location that completely took them by surprise.

They were inside of an enclosed room with very little lighting in it, and there was a large titanium door on the other side of the room with four keyholes on the left side of it. The woman walked over to the door and reached into her suit from the top, using one of her nails to pull out a set of four keys attached to a chain. Each key had an end to it that matched a card suit, and in order the woman puts them in as Diamond, Spade, Hearts and finally Club. Before the Club key was pulled out, Mew inquired "Where are we?"

The woman looked back and said with her eyes glowing slightly "My apologies for not introducing myself sooner. I am Priscilla Silverfang, and I welcome you both…" As she pulls the key out, the door creaks open, and Priscilla holds her right hand out while finishing her sentence off "To Casino Neptune." Mew and Kairi step forth to welcome to brightness exuding from the area past the door, and are both left with mouths agape when they see what lied beyond the door.

The two had walked into the middle of a gigantic casino environment, where there were thousands of slot machines, roulettes, card tables, and brisk red and gold décor consisting of walls, pillars, and carpets. There were many floors in just this part of the casino alone, and on higher floors one could barely see tables for dining and some flora from other worlds hung inside of pots. Finally, the ceiling was a glass dome showing the blue gases of the planet Neptune outside, with Mew noticing that there were a couple other gargantuan, sparkling gold buildings connected to this one by a series of tubes.

"What the hell…" Even Mew, who took everything else he had seen today in stride, broke a bit upon seeing this overwhelmingly fancy and gigantic casino placed in Neptune's atmosphere. By the time he lowered his head, Priscilla had already gotten in front of him without making a sound, with Mew's heart skipping a beat as she mentioned "I am sure this comes as quite a surprise for you, Sir Mew." Kairi stated to the woman quickly "What does any of this have to do with the Planetary Aurians?!"

Priscilla closed her eyelids and said with a stoic expression "Quite a bit, actually. But I will have to explain things to you both along the way." While she was responding, Mew widened his eyes and looked at some of the alien life forms enjoying themselves at the casino. Raising his pointer finger up, Mew said to Priscilla with a stutter in his voice "T-There are Space Pirates, Shroobs and some members of the Convenant here."

"Here at Casino Neptune, we allow any and all alien species to come here and intermingle. So long as they don't cause any trouble, we're fine with them being here, regardless of their species' history." Priscilla calmly explained before she turned around and began to walk away, and Mew and Kairi followed her earlier warning and kept up with her as she weaved between the customers while keeping her arms at her sides. Mew looked at all the aliens in the area and was pretty overwhelmed by how many species were here, the amount of aliens in this building alone probably numbering in the millions.

"How do you manage to keep these many species under control?" Kairi inquired while accidentally brushing against the back of a slimy alien, leading to her squirming a bit due to how cold it was, and as she shook it off Priscilla said to her "We have a very good security force." The three then begin to climb a winding staircase, leading them to a sliding door that takes them into a large room filled with hundreds of golden capsule shaped trains that can go out of many different glass tubes.

Priscilla leads the two to one of the trains and turns around, telling them both "Place your tickets into the slot on the door and we'll be able to take off." Mew and Kairi pull their tickets out and place them into said slot, and the doors slide open instantly while a voice remarks _"DNA Recognized. Switching to VIP Mode." _Said train hisses and detaches from the rest of them, and Priscilla bows forward slightly and holds her right arm out towards the door so Mew and Kairi could go inside and sit down on the two-person red leather seats. Priscilla then steps inside the train and sits on the seat on the other side as the door slowly seals shut.

After a little shaking, the train shoots off towards the tube in front of it at high speed, carrying it's three passengers through miles of glass quickly as it leaves the building behind. While Kairi was more focused on the sights outside, Mew got to the point with Priscilla and asked her "Ok then, so how does this Casino operate? Tell me everything you feel is necessary, Priscilla." Priscilla nodded her head and said "We have a little time, so I shall try to be as quick and precise as I can be, Sir Mew."

Priscilla then lays her hands onto her legs and states calmly "Casino Neptune is composed of four buildings. We just exited the Casino and Diner building, and the other three are our hotel, the parking lot, and the office, which is where this train is currently taking us. Casino Neptune operates on the belief that all life forms should be treated with the same care and attention so long as they don't cause any trouble. We have our own currency system that allows any species to put their money into a machine and get an equivalent amount of gold coins from it, and then they can turn those coins in to get their species' money back."

Priscilla points to the left out the window to make Mew and Kairi focus on the approximately one million story golden hotel in the distance, stating to them "With the help of Lady Saturn, who has also done quit a bit of construction work for our casino, we've managed to acquire enough research notes to make it so any species that signs in to rest will be accommodated perfectly. And there are teleporters in each room for quick travel to and from the lobby to their rooms. And naturally, we have cuisine for every species, but we find that when aliens come to our casino they love to try foods from other worlds more than anything else."

Suddenly, the train slants up a bit and the glass tube goes out of sight in a matter of seconds, leading Mew to realize they were now flying. Priscilla noticed the shock on his face and told him "Do not worry, we are simply climbing an invisible tube to the office building. The tickets you two picked from the terminal operate by using a combination of DNA and fingerprint scanning, making it so only those who have touched the ticket and gone through the portal can take this train to the office."

Mew blinked a couple times in surprise at that, thinking to himself _"Saturn really outdid herself with all this…" _Priscilla then closed her eyelids and held her head up a bit before stating "So in short, here at Casino Neptune we pride ourselves on running a legitimate business, making certain that all those who come are allowed to have fun without encroaching on the enjoyment others are having. And it was all possible thanks mostly in part to the person you two know as Planetary Aurian Neptune."

"They sound like an incredible person." Kairi commented, and with a tiny blush in her cheeks Priscilla holds a hand up to her face and says "Yes, yes they are." Priscilla then quickly pulled her hand away from her face as Mew seemed to be paying attention to her, pointing out quietly to the two "We'll be arriving shortly at the VIP Chamber. Please prepare to leave the train soon."

Mew looks back as the train rides into the center of the bottom of a gigantic circular building, going through a moment of darkness before they arrive at their destination, a small chamber perfectly shaped for this type of train to fit into while also giving the passengers enough room to get out. Priscilla gets onto her feet the very moment the train stopped and opens the door, behind it being another door that Priscilla walks up to and uses a card on a slider to open it wide. "You may exit the train now, Sir Mew, Lady Kairi." Priscilla stated while stepping off to the side.

Mew and Kairi get out of the train one after the other and walk out past the chamber, standing atop a slick dark-green glass floor and find themselves inside of a very wide-open room where the walls were lined with pillars made of jeweled dice and the ceiling was shaped like the inside of a roulette's centerpiece. "So this building must be shaped like a roulette wheel. Fancy." Mew commented, and Priscilla said to him in response "It was a nice touch to the aesthetics of the overall Casino."

After walking forward a little bit, Mew and Kairi hear a rather distinct clank echoing across the room, and the two of them look down and see someone bent over in front of a pool table, a stick of pure adamantium in their hands as they knocked some balls around with precise blows. Priscilla stepped forward while gesturing out to Mew and Kairi to make them stop, saying to the person playing pool "I have returned with our guests."

The person immediately stopped what they were doing and stood upright, turning around and leaning back against the pool table while putting the pool stick underneath her shoulders. The person was a woman wearing a spiffy long-sleeved black tuxedo with a light-green undershirt and dark green cuffs. She had black nylon pants with white stripes on it and a silver belt keeping them up, with some slick brown bowling shoes on her feet and a small white bow-tie on her undershirt. On her hands were two rings each, a sapphire and emerald one on her left and a topaz and ruby one on their right. Her fingernails are glossed over with a sparkling green polish, which looked rather nice alongside her light blue-purple skin. Her hair is a mint-green color and cleanly cut, and it did not extend any further than her chin at all times. Finally, the last thing to note were the tiny golden dice on her ears.

The woman smiled with an incredibly relaxed expression before she lifted her head up a bit and said gently "Welcome back, Priscilla. I assume there was no trouble on the way here?" Priscilla nodded her head forward and remarked "Absolutely not. We've had a rather relaxed day at the casino so far." The other woman pulls herself away from the table and begins to walk forward, laying her pool stick down on the edge of the table before remarking "Good. I would hate for our guests to have to clean up a brawl before coming here."

The woman extended her right hand out as Priscilla stepped aside, and quickly she shook before Mew and Kairi's hands, and at this close-up it was clear that this woman was just as tall as Kairi was, and it also made Priscilla the shortest person in the room as she was a couple inches shorter than Kairi. As Neptune shook hands with her two guests, she said to them "Welcome to my casino. I am Aurian Neptune. I hope Priscilla has made your trip here comfortable."

"She did her job well. She answered all of our questions and made sure we wouldn't get lost." Mew remarked quickly, and once Neptune has backed off a couple feet Mew pointed to himself and then at Kairi while stating "Anyways, my name is Mew, and this is Kairi…But judging by Priscilla's remarks, you already knew that." Neptune smiled and said as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest "You are absolutely right. Saturn told me you were going to be here soon enough, so I made sure Priscilla was ready to pick you both up."

"She's a very patient butler then, cause we took a break after Saturn and had to deal with Uranus as well before getting here." Kairi commented, and Priscilla widened her eyes a bit before Neptune remarked with a giggle "Hehe…I can see how you would assume she's my butler, given her choice of fashion, but the truth of the matter is that she is my lo-" Priscilla suddenly broke her naturally calm demeanor as she turned to look at Neptune and remarked with an awkward look on her face "T-There's no need to reveal that in front of our guests."

Neptune looked at Priscilla, noticing the pure blush in her cheeks before she remarked with a quiet laugh preceding it "You always get so embarrassed when I reveal this to others. It's alright, I don't think they will judge us too harshly if I tell them that we are married." Mew widened his eyes immediately upon hearing that and Kairi's mouth became rather agape, and Priscilla glances at them both before sighing and saying "B-Bella…" while her cheeks became so red that it overtook the pinkness in her skin.

Neptune remarked nonchalantly at this matter by stating to Mew and Kairi "Well surely you wondered about the wedding ring Priscilla wears." Mew knew he couldn't let Neptune go unanswered, and though his mind was a bit broken by how surprising this whole matter was he nevertheless told her "I noticed it, sure, but it's not easy to suspect that she was married to another woman."

"I apologize if this revelation offends you both in any way." Neptune stated, and Mew just shrugged his shoulders and said "Not at all, I just didn't expect to run into a lesbian couple on this journey." "I-I'm pretty much in the same boat here." Kairi stated with a little bit of awkwardness in her voice, leading to Priscilla letting out a sigh of relief as she laid a hand against her chest.

Neptune giggled and lowered her arms, stating to Priscilla afterwards "I'm sorry for that dear, but I figured it'd be better to tell them now rather than later." Priscilla nodded her head and looked at Neptune, telling her calmly "Bluntly speaking here Bella, but perhaps the one who feels more awkward around others about it should be the one to reveal the truth." Neptune closed her eyelids and remarked "Fufufu, if I did that we'd be waiting hours for you to do that. You always get especially awkward around teenagers."

"Hmmm…Just for that, I shall be the one on top tonight." Priscilla calmly remarked, and she adjusted her cuffs slightly as Neptune shrugged her shoulders and said "I shall look forward to it. But for now, let us not bore our guests with talks of our planned nightly ventures." Neptune lifted her eyelids open and said rather quickly "Mew…If it's not too much to ask, I wish for you to be my opponent today."

"I don't mind, but why me specifically?" Mew replied while gesturing his right hand out past his folded arms, leading to Neptune explaining with a relaxed expression "Saturn certainly did her best to hype you up as an incredible opponent. She said 'he has incredible skill, determination, luck, and power'…To abridge her incredibly long-winded explanation, anyways. I suppose as the owner of a casino, it's just in my nature to take a gamble in fighting opponents like you."

"Alright then, I'll accept your challenge. Heh, guess you'll be facing the final Planetary Aurian at this point, Kairi." Mew said while glancing over and smiling at Kairi. Kairi merely responded with a nonchalant "Yeah I guess so. So I'm just going to assume I'll be sitting off and spectating the battle in some room I can't see from here?" As Kairi looks around the room, Neptune told her "Actually, I wish to give you a little taste of the services we offer here at my casino, Kairi Aurora."

"H-Huh?" Kairi looked at Neptune with surprise clear as day in her eyes, leading to Neptune glancing over at Priscilla and both of them nodding their heads before Priscilla stated to Kairi "I've taken notice of the scars on your stomach and shirt, and wish to fix both of them to the best of my abilities. I'll take you to my room and allow you the use of my shower while I put your shirt back together with perfect stitching. And then I will apply a healing ointment made from the leaves of Tallon IV that will accelerate the healing process of your scars."

"O-O-Oh? You don't have to go that far, Priscilla." Kairi said while waving her arms out in front of her body, leading to Priscilla bowing forward and saying "You're welcome to deny me, but it is in the nature of my hospitality here to at least insist that you take me up on my offer." Kairi, after a few seconds of thought, sighed and said "Well alright…I guess I could use a shower after all the fighting I've been doing."

Priscilla lifted her head up and smiled, stating to Kairi afterwards "Then I shall take you immediately. Also, I'm sorry to express bias towards you Sir Mew…But I wish Bella the best of luck against you." Priscilla then went over to Kairi and gently grabbed her by her right hand, taking her away from the area by going for a door in the eastern part of the room while Mew remarked "Hey Kairi, try and make it back before the battle is over!"

Kairi was out of the room before she could respond, and Mew turned to face Neptune and held his right hand out while stating "So…Ready when you are, Bella." Neptune's expression twitched for a moment before she said "Put your arm down Mew, we'll be doing something a little different here. Also, I'd appreciate it if you don't call me by my real name from here on out…That honor is reserved only for two others. No offense meant when I say this." Mew blinked his eyelids twice and then lowered his arm, stating to Neptune "Ok then…What are we doing here?"

Neptune turned her body to the side and gestured her right pointer finger at herself after briefly pointing it at Mew, and she then proceeds to walk back over to her pool table. Mew is then guided to the other side of the pool table as Neptune spends a few seconds putting the balls together into a triangle. Once she was done Neptune turned her pool stick a bit towards her and then punched the front of it, making it flip through the air so she can grab it at the center by thrusting her right hand up without at all looking at it.

"We will play a game of pool. Now then, let me get you a stick to use." Neptune states, calmly placing the tip of her pool stick into a hole on the side of her table, and in a matter of seconds the floor opens up beside Mew as a rack with twenty pool sticks made of different jewels rose up. Mew looked at the rack for a few seconds before instinctively going for the amber stick, and the very moment he pulled it off the rack sunk down into the ground. "It only makes sense I'd pick this one. Either that or the ruby stick you had." Mew commented as he rubs his hand up and down the pool stick.

"So how are we doing this?" Mew inquired as he looked at the rather relaxed Neptune. "Put more balls into the sockets than I do, and we'll go from there. I'd also like it if we talk for a bit while playing." Neptune said, leading to Mew remarking "Fair enough. So let me guess…I'll get to go first since I'm the guest, right?"

Neptune nodded her head, and with a sultry smile she whispered "Now then Mew…Show me how good you are at holding that hard stick of yours." Mew just kept a nonchalant expression on his face as Neptune placed the cue ball in position, and he walked in front of it ready to line up his stick with the ball. After a little bit of thinking, Mew pushed the stick into the cue ball and watched as it struck the others, spreading them across the table without any of them hitting the sockets whatsoever.

Once Mew had made his move he backs off, letting Neptune get into position so she could make her move. As Neptune leans over and holds her pool stick in one hand, she asks of Mew rather casually "So how is my sister doing?" Mew tilted his head a bit and inquired "Your sister?" Neptune said as she thrust her stick out "Noel? …You know, Aurian Jupiter?"

Neptune's move knocks the three ball close to a socket, and it takes a moment before it falls in all the way. Mew meanwhile shook his head a bit and remarked "…The trip to this planet has been full of surprises. Ummm, anyways, Jupiter is doing pretty well. She broke Callisto during our battle, but she was just fine after I defeated her." Neptune sighed a bit as she stood up, stating "Oh sister…I don't know why you always choose to break Callisto when you fight. So Mew, I suppose you find it really hard to believe that we are sisters, right?"

As Mew gets into position for his next move, he says with an awkward chuckle "W-Well, no offense to either you or Jupiter…But you two are really polar opposites." "I suppose that is true, but the fact that we get along despite our differences shows just how strong our bond as sisters are. And there's a lot I must thank my sister for, especially when it comes to the fact that I am here standing before you today." Neptune replied, and once Mew was done with his move he stood upright and remarked "I'd like to hear that story, if you wouldn't mind."

Neptune nodded her head, getting into position for her next move before stating "Noel and I used to live on a desert world, spending a lot of our childhood as wanderers after our parents died at a young age. Noel would always play the role of a vagabond, making sure the two of us were well-fed and clothed at all times. For many years, we were successful in surviving as we moved from city to city. To protect myself from the cold of the desert nights, Noel turned my birth blanket into a scarf for me to wear."

"I wore that scarf for many years, but eventually I gave that back up to my sister, and she still wears that scarf to this day. Anyways, with that minor detail out of the way…When I was six and Noel was eight, we were almost kidnapped by a strange man until the local police force stepped in and took said man down. This greatly inspired my sister to become a member of the police force, hoping that by doing so she'd be able to care for both of us legitimately with the money she'd earn. I felt guilty knowing that my sister wanted to try so hard to help us out, and thought to maybe find a job to help us as well."

"However, my efforts led to me running into a mob hideout by mistake. They used my naivety to get me interested in card games, though as it turned out I was naturally gifted at playing them, which led to me earning a lot of money off of them. But instead of taking the money back to my sister, the mob forcibly adopted me into their group, with the boss choosing me to be his daughter. My efforts to help out led to me losing a good ten years of time with my sister, but it's not like things were too depressing with the mob…"

"You see, while I was with the mob, I learned a lot about the art of gambling. I learned every type of game imaginable and became an expert of all the tricks. But I didn't want to live with the mob forever. In secret, when they were raiding other mob territory or ran their casinos, I taught myself how to fight with a pool stick since they didn't trust me with either guns or swords. Someday, I would free myself from the mob…But in the meantime, they had me help run their casinos, and since I never fought in front of them they were unaware of my growing ability to fight."

"On my sixteenth birthday, I decided to make my move, and bravely challenged the mob boss to a game for control of his group. He was humored by this, naturally, and I knew he planned to sic his men on me once I won against him. But before I could go through with the game, the police force broke into the casino and began a takedown of all mob members inside. And to my surprise, my sister was there, and I was able to recognize her because she had my scarf and her red hair still. Quickly, the two of us took down the mob."

"We were both then brought back to the station, and after catching up with my sister on our lost years I was let off without any punishment considering I hadn't stained my hands with blood. I was also given access to all of the funds the mob had captured, seeing as how everyone who had owned the money were dead. So in the end I got the money necessary to support the two of us, but it seemed as though it wasn't necessary as my sister was happy with her job and had made quite a name for herself in the police force. In the end, I was happy for her as well, but the most important thing I took away from that ten-year experience was that I loved the idea behind luck-based games and casinos in general, and wanted to do something with that love of mine without any of the crookedness involved."

"So after Noel and I were made into Planetary Aurians, I took all the money I had acquired and built a casino in the planet's atmosphere. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get many customers at first due to how far out of the way my casino was. That all changed when Gravitus came to visit. As we played a game of pool, he offered me a chance to get more publicity for my casino, as he said he was planning on traveling through space every now and then and would use his time to advertise my casino. I had to consult my sister on this matter, especially after I heard she was defeated by this man, but in the end she gave me her full support since she wanted my dream to be fulfilled after all the time I had lost being a hostage of the mob."

"And you trusted him after that?" Mew inquired in a puzzled tone, and Neptune said to him "He's a man who fulfills his promises, as odd as that sounds. And as you can tell from the state of my casino, he managed to advertised my casino across the universe. The biggest revenue has come from the twenty planets Gravitus peacefully conquered, and over the years I've been able to expand the casino's size by paying Saturn for some assistance." "Wait…What the hell? Gravitus has control of twenty planets?" Mew stated, finding himself in an insane amount of disbelief over that.

"Yep. For two-thousand years Gravitus has controlled twenty worlds, all without shedding a single drop of blood from the citizens." Neptune stated, but then lifted her head up slightly and remarked "Unfortunately, you would have to ask him more about that, I don't tend to ask details when it comes to his affairs. Any other questions you have now?" Mew just scratched the side of his head and inquired "Well…I guess I'd like to know how Priscilla fits into all of this."

Neptune stated "Well, you must have noticed by now that she is a Halfling." "A Halfling? Oh, you mean she's half-human and half-beast. Yeah, it's pretty clear she's part dragon, but what does that have to do with my question?" Mew inquired, and Neptune began to explain to her "Well you see…Our first meeting was a rather interesting one because of her heritage as a Halfling. In the early days of my casino, after Gravitus' advertising efforts began to bring aliens in, I ran into a couple traders who were planning to sell some beasts on the market, and one of those beasts in question was Priscilla."

"Confronting the traders, I learned that they were actually black market operators, and thus saw it as my duty to take them down and free the beasts they had captured. While most of the beasts reacted with happiness, Priscilla was very enraged after spending so much time in a cage, and immediately transformed into a dragon upon her escape and went berserk across my casino. I had to calm her down through a difficult battle, but after about three days I was finally able to make her revert to her human form, though in the process she had slaughtered the black market operators."

"After that she broke down crying and screamed that she was lost, that she was far away from her home world and didn't have any idea where it was or how to get back. Because of that, all I could do was offer to let her stay with me for a while. The sad truth about Priscilla's situation was that her home world had been devastated by the black market organization, and that she was kept alive so her value would be very, very high as the last of her kind. Noel and I, with Saturn's help, dismantled the organization and brought some peace of mind to Priscilla."

"But in the end she still didn't know where to go, so I did the right thing and allowed her to stay with me. She was overjoyed at the offer and began to work as my assistant, and eventually our time together turned to love and we chose to marry. The thing about Halflings is that they share some of the more prominent traits of their beastly halves, and in her case she descended from a dragon that was immortal. She was just like me that she would never die of old age, so she was the perfect choice for a companion. Plus, since we are both women, we never have to consider the possibility of subjecting a child to the cruelty of dying before their parents."

After she was done with her explanation, Neptune pushed the last ball into the socket, and with the clanking echoing through the room Mew realized that the game had ended rather quickly from his point of view. Neptune stood up and said "I'm sorry to say though, the questions will have to end here, our game is over. And in the end with ten balls in play you sunk in four while I sunk in six." Neptune adjusted her cuffs and then leaned her pool stick against her chest, looking at Mew with a peaceful expression as Mew rubs the back of his head and says "So I lost…Does that mean we can't continue on to the next floor now or something?"

"Not at all. The pool game was just the start of our battle…" Neptune stated, proceeding to take her pool stick and putting the tip into the same hole as earlier so Mew could put his pool stick away. However, she then makes the pool table sink into the ground while tapping her stick against the side of it, which causes the ten pool balls to rise up out of the sockets and levitate around her in a ring. Mew followed Neptune with his eyes as she walked in front of him, stopping at least fifteen feet away while standing sideways before him.

Mew blinked twice as Neptune gripped her pool stick and leaned her head back, looking towards the ceiling as she explained with a relaxed smile "Don't feel ashamed for losing to me. I have had two-thousand something years to master every game possible. But you came close…Only Gravitus can share that honor, which means Saturn was not lying about your luck and skill." Neptune then leans back and holds her pool stick backhanded, holding it up against her back as she turns her head to look at Mew and said "I love games. Games are a lot like life…You have to play smart, be willing to stake highly, and have a little bit of luck on you."

"It's also why the more luck that's involved in a game, the more I enjoy it. I've always lived my life on the edge of danger, from surviving the arid sands and the mobs to fending off powerful beasts and aliens…But no matter what, every time I fight with those stakes on the line, I feel alive. Now, I've had enough fun talking…It's time to show you what stakes we'll both be playing with here." Neptune lifts her left hand up and then snaps her fingers.

The number 6 appears on a magic seal in front of Mew's body, and a seal with a 4 appears in front of Neptune. Neptune lifts herself off the ground slightly and makes the pool balls float in different spots around her body, while Mew suddenly leans forward and finds that his body feels much heavier than it was before. Mew has to put some effort into keeping himself upright, and he grit his teeth and chuckled before stating "So you're a magician, an Aurian, and a casino owner…"

Neptune admitted to Mew as she smiled "Well I hope you weren't believing that I was just going to use a pool stick to defeat an entire mob. I've learned quite a bit about magic over the years, and right now we've played under the effect of my 'Gaming Field' spell. It basically allows me to set conditions based on the games we play…And in this case I'll just say that the aftereffects of this spell are related to how you played our game of pool."

"Right…You made me six times heavier. Now I have to focus a lot of my strength into preventing myself from collapsing. That's fine, I should've expected something like this…" Mew says before holding both hands in front of his body and summoning his sword into his grasp, only to find that even the sword has become six times heavier. Mew struggled to keep the sword up, and Neptune said to him while summoning a green aura around her body "Now then…Lets enjoy this game of ours."

Mew immediately starts the battle by swinging his sword up and launching a wave of flame at Neptune. Neptune just stays still and lets the attack connect with her aura, and Mew is surprised when the flame wave is sent right back at him without slowing down at all, forcing him to swerve his body to the right before it hits. Neptune then shifts from one location to another in an instant, getting behind Mew and swinging her pool stick out at his neck while he only had a couple moments to react.

Mew turned his head around slightly and summoned a bit of metal on the back of his neck to block Neptune's attack, and as her attack connects she is pushed back a bit. Mew has to quickly get rid of the metal before it weights him down too much, and then he dispels his sword so he wouldn't have to deal with the extra weight. He then turned around and thought to himself _"Ok, so Neptune's aura can deflect projectiles…Lets try this instead then!"_

Mew thus swings his right hand out in front of him and makes a heavy amount of tree roots break through the ground and go right after Neptune, but Neptune pushes herself upward and flips backward through the air with a bit of floatiness in her movements to avoid the roots. Once Neptune was floating a few feet above the roots with her body upright she held her left hand out and sent four of her pool balls at Mew, along the way all of them growing in size and being surrounded by a bright energy comparable to the northern lights.

Leaping back in short hops, Mew watches as the balls crash right through the ground one after the other with ease. He then swung his hands upward while crossing his arms to command the tree roots to twist up towards Neptune. Neptune reaches into her right pocket and pulls out a full deck of cards, throwing the whole thing down at the tree roots and watching as each card sticks to a different part of them. Neptune then rises up and snaps her fingers, making all the cards detonate to destroy the tree roots entirely.

The deck of cards then appears back in the grasp of her hand, which Neptune swiftly puts back in her pants pocket before using a high-speed dash through the air to get herself directly in front of Mew. Neptune backflips directly in place, kicking both of her feet right into Mew's chin while pulling her four balls from earlier back up around her body. As Mew stumbles back from the surprisingly powerful kicks, he thinks about how his situation is in this battle.

"_Neptune is very fast…And she's got a variety of tricks up her sleeves. She's increased my weight, but there has to be something she did to herself considering the number seal that appeared near her body." _Mew thought to himself as he swipes the air in front of him and scars it diagonally with electricity in his attempt to strike Neptune, but the woman was too agile and slid right under it kicking Mew off his feet and knocking him up.

Neptune then quickly stood up and swung her pool stick up while holding it behind her, slamming it right into Mew's stomach with enough force to flip him over and making him crash against the ground. Neptune then spun around with the grace of a figure skater and moved back a couple inches, waiting for Mew to start rising back onto his feet before she slipped two cards from her pocket and flicked them right at his body.

Both cards explode, creating enough force to send Mew skidding back along the ground while pushing Neptune back a little bit. Behind the smoke from the explosion, Mew slams his elbow against the glass to flip himself back, landing on his feet while having some burn marks on his arms and forehead, much to his surprise. He then thinks to himself _"Ok, I'm starting to get used to my current weight…But I still can't draw my sword or attack with projectiles." _

Mew doesn't get much more time to think as Neptune throws three more cards through the smoke straight at him. He is forced to leap high and backflip, only for Neptune to already be floating in midair where he was going to be, and she jabs him in the gut with the tip of her pool stick to wind him long enough for her to take her right arm up a bit and twirl her pool stick around rapidly, making sure the ends connect with Mew's body each hit until the momentum from her twirl comes to an end.

She then followed up by grabbing her pool stick with both hands and attempting to bring it down onto Mew's head after a quick spin around, but before her attack connects Mew lifts his right hand up and grabs onto the front of her stick while smiling a bit. With Neptune caught in place she looks surprised for a moment, but then goes back to a relaxed expression as Mew throws out a straightforward left punch. Neptune takes one of her pool balls and converts it into a shell around her body that takes the punch and pushes her back through the air as it vanished.

With how slick her pool stick was, it didn't stay in Mew's grasp as she was pushed back, and she spun herself around before holding her stick out beside her in her right hand. But Mew was ready for her to recover from that attack, and quickly closed the distance between the two of them and tried to knee her right in the face. Neptune had just enough time to summon another barrier from one of her pool balls while looking just a little bit pressured by Mew's aggression.

Neptune dispelled the barrier before she gets pushed back, allowing her to then thrust her pool stick rapidly at Mew's body. Mew uses a barrier of electricity around his body so the metal would conduct and get sent right back to Neptune. She's shocked by the electricity a bit before pulling back her pool stick and sliding a few feet away from Mew, where she holds her left hand forward and thrusts all eight of her pool balls at him, using them to try and jab at his body as fast as she could.

Mew noted the number of balls that were left, realizing that by activating the barriers she had to sacrifice a pool ball in the process. He then raised his arms up and at least made an effort to block the balls that were striking his upper body. In mid-air he didn't have to worry about his legs taking a few hits since he wouldn't be knocked over. While Mew was defending against the balls, Neptune reached into her other pants pocket and pulled out two dice. She rolled them suspended in mid-air in front of her body with a flick of the wrist, and after they spun around a bit they stabilized with a number of dots representing "4" and "5" at the forefront.

The two dice then grew in size until they were as big as half of Neptune's height, and the dots glow bright red before firing off lasers right at Mew. Neptune pulls her balls back before the lasers could hit them, but Mew surprises her by thrusting his hands out and grabbing two of the balls and holding onto them tightly so they wouldn't fly back. Mew then waits until the very moment before the lasers hit to let go of the balls and fly up a bit, leading to the lasers annihilating the balls. Neptune shows a bit of irritation at that move as she swings her pool stick behind her while holding it backhanded and floats back a couple inches.

Mew thrusts his hands out and sends out two streams of electricity at Neptune, and she just floats there and lets her aura reflect the attacks. Mew however takes advantage of the pause to fly at light speed behind her and pull his right fist back for an attack. Neptune however has none of that as she lifts her left elbow up and jerks it backwards, jabbing it right at Mew's neck to wind him before turning around and swinging her pool stick right at his stomach after flipping it back around in the grasp of her hand.

This is then followed by Neptune pulling three cards from her magically respawning deck and throwing them right at Mew, making them all explode as she flies back at high speed before she gets caught up in the explosions. She knew that wouldn't be enough though and she pulls the dice from her other pocket again to make another roll, this time landing on two sixes. This leads her to smiling as the two dice press together and glow bright, making them fire off a gigantic laser beam straight at the smoke left from the explosion.

Mew flipped over the laser beam and threw two giant metal shuriken at Neptune that he had just created. The aura around her body deflects the two shurikens, but the true nature of Mew's attack is revealed as the shurikens unleash a blast of electricity the moment they are reflected. Neptune is hit with the electricity and kept in place because of it long enough for Mew to cover the distance between them and attempt a roundhouse kick against the right side of Neptune's face.

Neptune was too stunned to summon one of her pool balls for defense and thus was forced to take the hit head-on. Mew's kick knocks Neptune straight across the room to the left, surprising Mew considering he didn't put all of his strength into that attack. As he straightens himself off to look at Neptune, he thinks to himself _"I knew it…The magic seal divided her own weight by four. It made her more agile, but at the cost of lowering her defense. That's why she has the pool balls act as barriers." _

After being flung across the room for a few seconds, Neptune flips herself around so she's back upright in a moment, and she holds her pool stick behind herself while taking her other hand and holding onto the back of her neck, cracking the bones a bit as she pivots her head around without changing her expression in the slightest. Some blood dripped out from the right side of her mouth, and as she looks at Mew she thinks to herself _"He's figured me out…I have to end this now." _

Neptune shifts from one location to another to make it directly behind Mew, where she uses her pool stick to hit him square in the back of his head and knock him straight down to the center of the room. As Mew lands on his feet and lays a hand against the ground, Neptune snaps her fingers and causes a small glass dome to form around Mew's body, keeping him perfectly at the center of the room as Neptune casually throws her pool stick off to the right and has it fly a great distance before it sticks right into a hole in the wall.

This causes all of the glass on the floor minus the one piece directly below Mew's feet to retract into the walls before they are replaced with a giant numbered roulette wheel. There were numbers from zero to twenty-four across the wheel, with everything but the zero alternating between red and black. The wheel began to spin around as Neptune gathered all of her pool balls together and combined them into a single, gigantic ball that she lines up with the edge of the roulette using her pool stick, which was grasped in both hands and lined up with her arms for the perfect shot. "Lets see how your luck fares against my Magical Roulette." Neptune remarked before she shot the ball right down into the edge of the roulette wheel.

The ball, with Neptune's guidance, starts to roll quickly through around the edge of the wheel in the opposite direction. Neptune then floats in mid-air while sitting atop her pool stick, holding both of her hands on the ends of it while Mew tries to break his way out of the glass. But his attempt to punch or burn his way out ended in failure, meaning that the glass was strongly reinforced with magic. So all Mew could do was wait inside of the glass until the ball landed on a number outside.

It only took ten seconds for the ball to slow down and drop down onto one of the slots, and Mew was a bit surprised and somewhat worried when it landed on the zero. Neptune raised her eyebrows a bit as a red siren starts blaring in the room, and she lifted her right arm up towards the ceiling as it begins to open while remarking to Mew in a surprisingly loud manner "Looks like your luck isn't that great after all! Time for you to face my Final Gambit!"

And by 'Final Gambit', Neptune was referring to a gigantic satellite that suddenly decloaked from above the building. The satellite locked onto Mew's location and very swiftly opened itself up, firing down a gigantic pure white laser that would fit perfectly into the hole in the ceiling and assuredly only hit Mew. Mew quickly reacted to the scenario by drawing his sword and moving his fingers towards the trigger, bemoaning to himself in his head _"I was hoping to defeat most of the Planetary Aurians without resorting to this form, but that laser will destroy me if I don't do this."_

Before the laser hits Mew pulls the right trigger, making it so his change in form wouldn't go noticed by Neptune as he uses the strength of said form to protect himself from the full brunt of the laser, which broke right through the glass protecting him and consumed the area surrounding it for roughly fifteen seconds. Once the attack was over with, a huge plume of smoke laid in place along the laser's path, and Neptune replaced the damage roulette back with the floor of glass with a snap of her fingers.

But as she was in the middle of the process, Neptune flinched upon seeing a flash of light come from the center of the smoke. She realized right away that Mew had managed to survive her last attack, but instead of attempting to fight back she closed her eyelids and stayed on her pool stick while thinking to herself _"So this is how you fight…Your luck may be terrible, but your strength lies in being able to turn even the worst of situations into ones in your favor…" _

Mew was right behind her at this point with fist drawn back, and Neptune just kept a relaxed smile on her face as she closed her eyelids and admitted "You played the game quite well, Sir Mew." She then takes the punch right to her back and gets launched right out of the air, plummeting and colliding straight into the ground right enough force to kill a much weaker foe. But because of Neptune's strength, she is merely left tumbling across the ground for a few seconds before being left lying on her back with her pool stick rolling out of her hand a couple seconds later.

But even though some blood dripped out from her mouth again, Neptune just smiled in a relaxed manner and turned her head to the right as Mew slowly descended from the sky in his most basic form and remarked while rubbing the back of his head "Sooo…I'm guessing we're done with this battle now?" Neptune lifted her right hand up and gave a thumbs-up, telling Mew as she put it back down "My Final Gambit move is appropriately named…It takes all of my remaining magic and pours it into the satellite overhead and fires it down onto my trapped opponent. If the opponent survives, then I have basically lost the battle as I have no magic left to use to protect myself."

Mew walks over close to Neptune, but before he gets a chance to help her up a familiar voice suddenly calls out to her "Bella! I shall be right over! Just hang in there!" It was Priscilla, who quickly sprinted across the ground without making a sound, getting herself beside Neptune and immediately kneeling down so she could get Neptune's right arm over her shoulders and help stand her up with ease. Priscilla had a concerned expression on her face as she lifted Neptune up, but Neptune just turned her head to smile her way before taking her other arm up and poking Priscilla once on the nose.

"Thank you for coming to my aid Priscilla, but it's quite alright." Neptune remarks, and while Priscilla gets Neptune's arm off of her Mew turned around and saw Kairi standing a few feet away. She looked completely cleaned up, and her shirt was so perfectly repaired that it was like it was never struck at all. Mew walked over to Kairi and said "So did you enjoy your girl time with Priscilla?" Kairi rolled her eyes a bit and said "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"…I was more or less referring to how you were taken care of, not if you guys talked about anything." Mew remarked immediately, leading to Kairi blinking twice and admitted as she awkwardly glanced off to the side "W-Well…She let me shower all by myself as she worked on my shirt, and then she gently rubbed the ointment onto my stomach to heal my wounds…She took very good care of me, basically."

Mew and Kairi then look back at Priscilla and Neptune as Priscilla admits "That is just a fraction of the hospitality you could receive if you chose to stay here at Casino Neptune. If you want, you're more than welcome to stay longer." Before Mew could respond to that, Neptune glanced at Priscilla and told her "They'll have to save that offer for another time. They are on a mission, after all." Kairi was surprised by that commented and quickly asked "Y-You're fine with us going after Gravitus?"

Neptune looked at her two guests and remarked "Oh? I suppose Priscilla told you the same stories I told Mew…Anyways, why would I have any qualms with your mission? Sure, Gravitus provided me with plenty of publicity with his efforts, but at the same time I cannot ignore the suffering he has inflicted upon his own people. However…I am also not strong enough to do anything about him. Even the combined strength of all nine Planetary Aurians would not be enough to defeat Gravitus…But you two…You two might just be able to do it."

"You're putting favor in our odds, in other words." Mew commented in a humored tone of voice, and after nodding her head Neptune placed her right foot back and pushed her pool stick up so she could grasp it in her right hand and hold it behind herself as she mentioned "Lets just say a gambler has to have a good eye for these sorts of things." Kairi said in an appreciative but awkward tone "T-Thank you for having faith in us, Mrs. Neptune."

Neptune then closed her eyelids and said "…But before you go, there's one last thing I want to say." Neptune leaned back a bit and as her two guests listened in she explained to them "This casino of mine is my greatest achievement…But it's not just a place of enjoyment, it's also a place meant for giving people second chances. All of the people employed here are former criminals looking to make a life for themselves without returning to their past activities. And all of it was possible with a little network set up between myself, my sister, and Saturn."

"Saturn, while traveling the universe, sends us reports of criminal activity on other worlds. If she is too busy to deal with criminals herself, then my sister goes out and deals with them, and after looking up profiles and the like we find the appropriate people to give second chances to and hire them here. They get full benefits, a place to call their home, and a chance to do something good and atone for their pasts. There's also been occasions where I've caught wind of criminal activity on others worlds from here and passed the info on to my sister or Jupiter."

"And I've helped initiate the criminals into their new jobs." Priscilla states, and this is followed up by Neptune nodding her head and opening her eyelids, remarking in an appreciative tone "Of course I have you to thank as well, my love. You've supported my decisions in life almost as much as my sister has, and for that, I must remind you of my thanks with this…" Neptune, with little warning, leans towards Priscilla and suddenly kisses her on the lips as she turns her head, and though Priscilla was a bit embarrassed to be doing this in front of the guests she nevertheless put her best into enjoying the kiss as well.

Once the couple was done, Neptune smiled as Priscilla's cheeks turned red, and Neptune then glanced back at Mew and Kairi and giggled a bit, telling them in a humored tone "My sister has naturally expressed concern at some of my decisions despite also being in support of them, but she's always been there to laugh and have fun with me, and even when I don't see her by my side I know she still worries and cares for my well-being. That's just the role of an older sister, when you get right down to it…"

Kairi widens her eyes for a moment, finding those words rung true with her the most as she hung her head a bit out of Mew's line of sight and whispered "Y-Yeah…" Neptune then perked her head up a bit and said "I'm sorry. I feel we've done more talking than anything else here today, and yet I've hogged most of the conversation." "Well if we talked about my past, we'd be here for a while, so that's not exactly a bad thing." Mew admitted with a humored tone in his voice.

"Fufufu, so it is. I suppose I shouldn't hold you up anymore then. You have but one Planetary Aurian left before you face Gravitus…And he is the strongest of us all." Neptune said, putting on a rather serious expression as she explains the power of the last Planetary Aurian. Mew just casually folded his arms behind his head and remarked "Huh, and here I thought Earth was the strongest. Well, thanks for the heads-up though Neptune."

"And thank you again for the hospitality. That goes for both of you." Kairi said while laying a hand on her chest and bowing forward, and with their thanks given the two of them turn around and prepare to head back to the train so they could get out of the casino. Along the way, Mew glances back and says as though he just remembered it "Oh! And Neptune? …At the very least I'll try and make it back here sometime."

"I shall look forward to your visit. But you won't get the VIP treatment again, unfortunately." Neptune admitted, and Mew just shrugged his shoulders a bit before facing forward and entering the train alongside Kairi. Once the two were carried out of the room, Neptune leaned back a bit and got the kinks of her neck with a little pivoting of her head, remarking to Priscilla afterwards "Hmmm…Looks like I'll be too sore tonight for us to fully enjoying our nightly session."

"…You're just saying that so I'll have to do most of the work. Is this because I chose to be on top this time?" Priscilla remarked in a calm but somewhat irritated tone, and as Neptune stood herself upright she did neither confirm nor deny that accusation, leading to Priscilla remarking "You can be so petty sometimes, Bella…But I do love you in spite of that." The Halfling grinned warmly after that remark…

_Next Time: Speak Her Name to Him…_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: The Last Respite: Sister, My Sister…**

_Kairi was now thinking back simply two years before the present day. She was in the middle of sleeping in the middle of the night, so her memory of the start of events was rather hazy at first considering she had gotten into a rather deep slumber at the time. The first things she remembers are feeling a kiss on her forehead and then something being laid atop her body. The person then whispered something along the lines of "…Sle-…wel-…Kairi…" The intended message being pretty clear all things considered._

_But as the person could be heard quietly sneaking out of the room, Kairi woke up with a tired mumble before creaking her eyelids open and seeing someone standing at the doorway. "Mmm…Shina…? Is that you Shina?" Kairi mumbled as her vision cleared up and she saw the person standing at the door. At this point in time, the sixteen year old Shina was at least six feet tall with long pristine blonde hair stretching down to the back of her beige slacks, and she still wore a blue shirt that fit well despite her impressive breasts. _

_Shina flinched upon hearing Kairi call out to her, and she folded her arms behind her back before glancing over her left shoulder with a warm and mature expression on her face and stating awkwardly "H-Hi sis. Are you sleeping well?" Kairi lifted her right hand up and rubbed her face, getting out the crust in her eyes while murmuring tiredly "I'm fine…W-Why are you in my room? Shouldn't you be in bed for school tomorrow?"_

"_U-Ummm…" Shina was surprised that Kairi was asking her that, and the way she refused to instantly respond made Kairi suspicious, especially since Shina usually doesn't behave like this. "Shina…Is something wrong?" Kairi said in a concerned tone, leading to Shina pulling her arms apart and holding them beside her hips before she turned away from Kairi a bit and remarked "…Sis, I-I won't be going to school tomorrow." _

"_Huh? Why not? Are you feeling sick?" Kairi inquired, and Shina shook her head immediately before stating "No no, I'm perfectly healthy. I don't get that sick anymore sis. I-It's just that…" Shina was stalling for time until she could come up with something to say to her little sister, and Kairi knew this and stated "Please Shina…Tell me what's going on here…"_

_Shina could not bring herself to hold back the truth from her observant sister any longer, and after turning her head away from Kairi to look at the door out of the room she said "…I'm so sorry Kairi…But there's something I have to do now…Somewhere I have to go…" "What? …Where are you going?" Kairi asked, and Shina answered immediately with a bit of hesitation in her voice "I-I'm going away from Sancturia. Don't worry, I won't be going down to the Earth yet. We'll still do that together."_

"…_But the thing is Kairi…I want us to be able to go down to Earth together…But there's no way that will happen while Gravitus rules our people. So that's why I'm going to leave Sancturia while he's not here, so I can hopefully find someone who can help us fight and defeat Gravitus." Shina remarked with the utmost honesty in her voice, and Kairi said as her heart skipped a beat in surprise "W-What? You're going away?" _

"…_I-I'm sorry again Kairi…But I have to do this." Shina insisted while glancing over her shoulder again and smiling, but she saw Kairi shaking her head wildly before she stated "T-Then take me with you! Who knows what's out there waiting for you Shina? You need my help to make it out there!" Shina was surprised by Kairi's insistence to help, and this caused her to turn around and put on a gentle smile while telling Kairi "Mom would get pissed at me if I let you come along."_

"_And I'll get pissed at you if you leave without me! You're my older sister, we're supposed to stick together!" Kairi stated angrily, pounding both of her fists down in front of her and as a result hitting something cold and metallic in the process. Kairi looks down in confusion and sees a bandana on her bed with the metal plate that she would be familiar with in the present day. Shina then mentions to Kairi on that note "I'll never truly leave your side Kairi…That bandana I made for your birthday today, it'll always be there with you, in essence meaning I'll be right beside you as well." _

_Kairi stared down at the bandana for a couple moments, but then started crying as she quivered and remarked "I-I-It's not the same Shina! What if you don't make it back here? You could die out there, and I'd never forgive you for it if you do!" As Kairi was letting her frustration out, Shina had walked over to the bed and sat down on the side of it, taking her right hand out and ruffling Kairi's hair a bit to get her to look up and feel a bit embarrassed because of it. Shina then looked at her little sister with a smile and told her "I'm going to make it back alive, and you know why sis?"_

"_W-Why?" Kairi murmured while trying to fix her hair up, and Shina pointed towards the ceiling and remarked "Cause two years ago, I made a promise for the both of us to visit the Earth together. I have a reason to make it back alive, so therefore it's not like I'm going to be killed before fulfilling my promise, right?" Shina acted so overly cheerful with that remark that Kairi couldn't help but laugh and remark "Shina…That's so incredibly cheesy…"_

"_But I got a laugh out of you because of it, right?" Shina pointed out happily, and then Kairi went quiet and put on a melancholy expression after realizing that she'd miss laughing at Shina's goofiness. Shina then leaned forward and kissed Kairi again on the forehead, telling her as she pulled her head back "You're a strong girl sis. Don't worry, I won't be gone for very long." Shina was then ready to get off the bed, but Kairi grabbed onto her arm with both hands and said "…Promise me you'll return…Please…"_

"_I will sis. I'll make sure Gravitus is stopped." Shina remarked, and Kairi let go of Shina at this point and let her walk towards the door again. But before she left the room, Shina stopped and said "…Please take good care of mom, Kairi…Don't get in trouble at school, study hard, and most importantly of all…Don't ever give up hope. Fight as hard as you can no matter what struggles come your way, and one day we'll see each other again." The last thing Kairi remembered of that night was Shina leaving her room, and that was the last time Kairi had seen her older sister since that day…_

All these memories went through Kairi's head as her and Mew made the trip back through Casino Neptune to the portal that would take them back to the Sages' Pyramid. They were brought on by what Neptune had said about her older sister, and she had realized just now that it had been a little over two years since Shina left Sancturia to find help against Gravitus. "Hmmm…" Kairi sighed quietly to herself the moment the two of them had returned to the pyramid, and Mew hadn't managed to catch it due to being focused on the portal pulling away from the staircase.

"It's felt like a long road, but we just have one more Planetary Aurian to go! So lets get a move on and get this over with!" Mew said, punching his fists together with a great deal of enthusiasm before Kairi widened her eyes in surprise and said "W-We're not going to take a break this time around?" Mew turned to look at her and pointed out with an innocent smirk on his face "Last time we had a break things really didn't go too well. Maybe we can have a couple minute break between Pluto and Gravitus to catch our breath, but eh…"

Mew was just about ready to turn towards the staircase and start climbing it when Kairi suddenly lifted her right hand up and exclaimed "W-Wait! What if I had something to say that would require us to take a break? Would you allow it then?" Mew was surprised by this sudden proclamation and turned around while saying "This came up all of a sudden…What do you want to talk about right now?"

Kairi, realizing she had said what she did without thinking things through likely because of how rampant her emotions were at the moment, widens her eyes and then awkwardly pulls back her hand before stating "W-Well…There's something…" Pausing midway through her sentence, Kairi collected her thoughts by taking in a deep breath, and to make things even easier for herself she turns around to look away from Mew while clenching a fist close to her chest before she said "…There's something I want to tell you now. A secret I've been keeping from you this entire time…"

Mew folded his arms together and tilted his head a bit while humming to himself in intrigue, and as her heart raced Kairi told Mew to the best of her ability "I-I-I…I have an older sister…" Mew looked just somewhat surprised by that revelation, though it was for the best that Kairi didn't notice that so he quickly asked her "You do? I'm surprised Auris didn't mention her when we were talking back at your house…Why haven't I seen her at all since coming here though?"

Kairi turned around and said "W-Well, you see…The thing about that is…" Her nervousness came back right as she looked at Mew, and she thus quickly turned back around and finished her sentence off with by stating the truth to him "…She left Sancturia about two years ago, hoping to find someone that could stand up to Gravitus." "…I'm guessing she wasn't successful?" Mew inquired after a momentary pause.

Kairi quickly turned around and with a furious look in her eyes she exclaimed "No!" She then looked off to the side with a blush in her face as she quickly said "I-I mean…I don't know! I haven't heard a thing from her for over two years…" Mew raised a hand up to his chin and said to her while rubbing it "Sounds to me like she's likely dead…How much older was she compared to you?"

"She's not dead! She can't be dead! And if you are thinking Gravitus got to her, then I'll have you know that he wasn't on Sancturia when she left!" Kairi exclaimed in defiance of Mew's theory, leading to him leaning back a bit while feeling a bit bad for the suggestion, and he quickly apologized by saying to her "S-Sorry about that, but it was just a suggestion. Though really, I guess I can see why you wouldn't think that your sister was caught by Gravitus…Though at the same time, if she was sixteen by the time she left I don't see why Gravitus wouldn't have used the Planetary Aurians to try and find her considering his desire to acquire the Neo Drive requires the descendant of the Sages…"

Kairi widened her eyes upon hearing that, making it clear that she hadn't yet considered that possibility. "N-No way…" Kairi murmured out, and Mew quickly defused the situation by telling her "Look, only Gravitus would know the truth. I don't really feel like speculating on what happened to your sister." After he said that though, Mew thought to himself as he held his arms beside his hips _"But it's odd that her sister wouldn't have come down to the planet to find me…I was here two years ago, and Auris definitely knew about me. Am I forgetting something here?" _

He had to quickly get off this train of thought as Kairi murmured out "R-Right…" leading to Mew asking her "So why did you suddenly decide to bring up your older sister?" Kairi looked at Mew and said while awkwardly looking around the room "Well, I've just been thinking about her a lot while we've been in the pyramid…And then there's what Neptune said about older sisters…Plus that whole ordeal about the promise to go down to Earth…"

Mew nodded his head slowly at that moment, murmuring out to Kairi a moment later "Now things are starting to line up…You got mad at me earlier because you had already made a promise with your older sister to go down to the surface." Kairi, with a bit of an embarrassed expression, remarked to Mew "Y-Yeah…That's pretty much the gist of it…" And while nodding a little more Mew continued on by asking "Sooo ummm…What is your sister like?"

Kairi, having gotten very nervous from looking at Mew for this long, turned around and then explained while getting rid of her awkwardness "U-Umm…Shina is a very happy-go-lucky person. She was always selflessly helping others around the city, whether they were younger, the same age as, or older than her, but at the same time she was a very bubbly person, and she was really engaged in acting like she was something straight out of a fantasy world so she could use cheesy lines and words to cheer people up. And as silly as that sounds…she made it work. If I got hurt, got sick, or was saddened by the bad weather…Shina was always there to cheer me up if mom wasn't around, but even then the way Shina handled cheering me up just felt a lot more efficient…"

"I-I guess you could say because she was so happy all the time, it all just rubbed off on me, and so her happiness was my happiness…But when she left the planet to search for help, she took all of my happiness with her and left me with only the memories of our time together…" Kairi stopped for a moment and pointed to the bandana on her head, finishing her sentence off with a melancholic remark of "…and this…"

"She made that for you?" Mew remarked, and Kairi nodded her head and said "Yep…Made it for me for my 14th birthday…And gave it right before she left the planet…" Mew thus folded his arms together and held his head down a bit, closing his eyelids and telling Kairi "I think everything's starting to make sense now…You want to defeat Gravitus in hopes that somehow it'll get Shina to come back to Sancturia…But not just that, you want to defy what Gravitus has done to your predecessors by taking him out yourself. In other words, you're doing this all for Shina's sake, so you two can then go down to the Earth together."

Kairi slowly turned her head around and said with a surprised look in her eyes "Y-Yeah…That's pretty much all I want…" "Are you sure about that? That that's all you want?" Mew inquired while lifting his head up slightly and looking at Kairi with a firm glare, and upon getting the wrong idea Kairi folds her arms together and angrily says "If you think I want to fall in love with you, then back off from that-"

"No Kairi, I'm being serious here, has this whole thing really been just for your older sister?" Mew said, interrupting Kairi midway through and causing her to look shocked as she repeated her point firmly with "Yeah, so?" At that point Mew gave a rather disbelieving look towards Kairi for a few seconds before he shook his head a bit and let out a rather irritated sounding sigh, and he felt really hesitant about what he was going to say to Kairi. Nevertheless, he closed his eyelids and bluntly told her "Kairi, I understand what you're getting at for wanting to fulfill your promise to Shina…But at the same time, I can't ignore the fact that you're being incredibly selfish about it."

Reeling her body back a bit in response to that blunt remark, Kairi stuttered out of her mouth "W-What? W-What do you mean 'selfish'?!" Mew glared at Kairi while his head was still hung, surprising Kairi with how serious of a presence he exuded around his body, and Mew explained to her "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be motivated by wanting to bring your older sister back, but that should NOT be your only reason for stopping Gravitus. Have you forgotten your own people? They are also suffering because of Gravitus' presence. Because of how he has things set up in the pyramid, the Planetary Aurians kill any defiant people and bring the bodies of Auris' descendants to Gravitus himself."

"…" Kairi didn't say anything at first, leading Mew to state towards her "And I'm starting to get the feeling Gravitus has been manipulating the Aurians by having both your mother and Saturn bring and create stuff from Earth so the Aurians would have everything they could ever want from the planet and never ever consider leaving Sancturia, thus making it easier to keep an eye on rebels and the like. Aurians should be allowed to go down to the Earth whenever they want, they look exactly like humans after all, but Gravitus is restricting their freedom because of his desire to rule over those beneath him. So do you still think you shouldn't include 'helping your own people' in your list of reasons for wanting to stop Gravitus after I've told you all this?"

Kairi was silent for just a few more seconds, and though her heart was racing from looking at Mew's serious expression she forcibly put on a smirk and told him her honest feelings about what he said by saying "No, I don't think I need to include that as one of my reasons." Mew lifted his head up and glared at Kairi with a bit more intensity, telling her while trying to remain calm "You're serious, aren't you? They're your own people for crying out loud, how could you be so callous? Is it because they insulted you back outside the pyramid?"

"Because they insulted me back out…Hahaha, are you serious? You think that's all there is to it? I WISH it was just one instance of them insulting me." Kairi said, laughing Mew off while waving her left hand out at him and turning sideways. She then looked at him while leaning her head back a bit, and with her still smirking she said "You know how quickly my life changed after Shina left Sancturia? I tried to follow her advice and stay happy, and for a time it was working out well…But then came the insults."

Kairi put her hands into her pockets and told Mew "But at first they weren't directed towards me. They were all about Shina, in how she was a disgrace and an abandoner. I ignored them at first, but it just bothered me after a while and so I decided to stand up for my sister. I had never really done something like that before, so I was very timid and such…But for my attempt to stand up for my sister's reputation, I just got shoved away and laughed off. It hurt a lot, but I thought maybe they'd stop since I defended her."

"…God, that was a load of bullshit naivety on my part…It didn't get better after that. In fact, it continually got worse. Not long after that, the insults got a little more…'exotic'…They started calling Shina things like 'dumbass', 'bitch', 'slut', and they added me to that mix too just by association. Things got really stressful for me, and mom tried to defuse the situation by pointing out the kindness Shina showed towards everyone, but all that did was make everyone be more secretive with their insults, and they also allowed the students at my school to keep insulting Shina without restraint."

"So as you can imagine, things got so stressful for me that one day something inside of me just, you know, snapped…Instead of defending Shina with words, I resorted to attacking my fellow classmates with my own body. But at the time, they were stronger than me, bigger than me…more numerous than me, so I was the one who got hurt instead, even if I scarred some skin and broke a few teeth from their mouths. My mom had to run damage control again by using her healing magic on not just myself, but the kids that got hurt as well."

"It pissed me off so much though that mom had to keep bailing me out though, and eventually I started getting angry at her as well. Not only that, I started training my body and aura in the Offensive Style so I could overpower those assholes that were badmouthing my sister. And in time that's just what happened. I began kicking the ass of anyone who would dare say anything negative about my sister or myself. I stood up for myself and it felt great."

"Then I hit my growth spurt at 16 and became like the biggest student in class, and after making myself look more like a warrior by wearing my bandana at all times and creating my own staff to carry around I permanently shut up everyone who had ever said anything bad about my sister." Once Kairi was done explaining herself she had a pretty satisfied look on her face, and Mew said to her while keeping himself looking serious "Do you really think you stopped them from badmouthing your sister? All you really did was stop them from saying things while you are within earshot. There's millions of people in your city, and if you went as far to exert your own power to get your people to stop doing one thing, then you'd be on the road to becoming a second Gravitus."

"How DARE you! I am NOTHING like that bastard!" Kairi exclaimed with the utmost rage in her voice as she turned to look at Mew, and Mew quickly told her with a blunt exclamation "Then prove me wrong and give a damn about your own people!" Kairi glared at Mew with all of her might and firmly, quietly told him "No. I will never, EVER care about those assholes. After all Shina did for them, after all the selflessness and kindness she showed, they have no right whatsoever to badmouth her! Stop trying to change me into something I'm not!"

"I'm not trying to change you! I'm trying to STOP you from becoming something you're not!" Mew exclaimed firmly, and Kairi just laughed and said "Well you're two years too late for that, dumbass! THIS is who I am now! That idealistic happy idiot died when Shina left Sancturia! All that remains is me, the warrior who takes no shit from anyone! Especially not the likes of you!" Kairi made a point of things by poking Mew hard in the chest, which made him budge a bit as Kairi looks smugly at him.

"You're being ridiculous. Cut this out now." Mew took on a more serious tone in an attempt to give Kairi a fair warning for how far she was taking this whole conversation, but she didn't care as she folded her arms and closed her eyelids, remarking bluntly "Fuck you. Fuck Gravitus. Fuck the Planetary Aurians. Fuck my 'people'. And fuck my mother. All of you can just kiss my-" Suddenly, Kairi finds herself grabbed by the collar of her shirt and pulled face-to-face in front of Mew, who was beginning to look rather furious in his eyes as he held Kairi close to him and exclaimed "Don't you EVER say anything bad about your mother you little ingrate!"

Kairi didn't seem to know when to quit, and she taunted Mew by telling him "Oh bite me, she's a lying drunkard who pulled the wool over my eyes about the closest thing I have to a father figure and has done nothing to help her people." "If that's really what you believe, then I pity you Kairi Aurora." Mew said in an exasperated manner, and he lifted his head up a bit before telling Kairi bluntly "Auris may have deceived you a bit, and she deceived me as well, but I can definitely see WHY she did it."

"She has the ability to see every future that can happen. She's so good at it that she's able to give rough percentages about each possibility. There's nothing that escapes her clairvoyance, and you know what that means? Choosing to deceive you, at the time, was the best possible decision she could've made. It gave you a father figure, and the only reason it backfired is because after two-thousand years of sacrificing her own happiness for the sake of her people she had enough and made the conscious decision to call me in so I could not only save her people from Gravitus' madness, but her daughter as well!"

"She knew what would happen if she called me to Sancturia, she knew you'd learn the truth about Gabriel's forced allegiance to Gravitus, she probably even knew I'd be having this conversation with you right now! But she also loves you and her people so very, very much that the risks outweighed the benefits in her mind. She's endured two-thousand years of pain, lost probably so many children to Gravitus' mad pursuit of power, and now that she finally decided to have someone stop his ambition it's when the child she wants to save is the most ungrateful of them all! And yet she still loves you all the same!"

"She'll never stop loving you, even after you die before her she'll always remember you and the love she shared towards you! So I hope after all is said and done with Gravitus, you'll go back to your mother, apologize to her for all the crap you've given her for the last two years, and appreciate the fact that you at least HAVE a parent to return to when people like me are going to have to go home and continue to have no one there with them!"

Mew took a moment to catch his breath after saying all of that without a break, and Kairi just looked at him with an expression of absolute fright as her mouth was left partially agape and she felt her body begin to tremble. She still had a tiny bit of spunk in her though, and murmured out "W-Why are you a-a-also taking those assholes' sides?" Mew glared at her with sheer disbelief on his face bordering on anger, and he murmured out to her "Are you really being serious here? Fine, I'll explain it to you then."

"You're right, it's not fair for them to insult your sister after all she did, but at the same time I get why they did it. Gravitus has been a part of Aurian history for two-thousand years, and what he has done has carried through the generations…But not just that, the fact that Auris has not done anything in the eyes of her people has carried down through the generations as well. But Gravitus cannot be touched, people cannot just speak ill of him because of his history of killing rebels, so this leads your people to use someone else as a scapegoat for that hatred, and your mother and her children are the easiest people to target because of that."

"Yes, it's a horrible thing to belittle someone who had done nothing but be nice. Yes, it was the right thing for you to do to stand up for your sister. But you went wrong when you started to assault your own people to defend your sister. That just gave them justification for belittling YOU. YOU made yourself a target, and did nothing to stop them from insulting your sister or your mother either. In fact, your mother stained her name further by doing damage control for your behavior. It would've been just better to ignore them. Let them create their own 'happiness' by taking their hatred towards Gravitus out on others through words, hold your head up high, and then show them that you are not worth their time by striving to be just as nice as your sister is."

"…That's what you could've done back then, Kairi Aurora. But instead of doing that you chose the worse of the two options. Your mother and your sister are incredibly brave people who have done a lot for their own people, and I hate to use myself as an example but even I'm doing all I can to help out ALL Aurians even though I have no reason to have a stake in this conflict…If you had even one percent of their selflessness, then you'd understand what went wrong here. But you don't have that…You're just a selfish bitch, Kairi Aurora."

Finally done with his tirade, Mew lets go of Kairi's shirt collar and lets her fall to her feet with a completely stunned look on her face. She felt so weak now that Mew had finished verbally tearing her apart, and as such she dropped to her knees and held her head back a bit while looking on the verge of a tearful breakdown. Mew closes his eyelids and steps back a couple inches, and as Kairi's eyes twitch with her mouth still agape every memory she has had with Shina played through her head untamed, reminding her of the type of person she was before Shina had left. Combined with what Mew had just told her, and there was only logical conclusion to this…

Raising her fists high into the sky, Kairi lets out a blood curling scream of rage that lasts ten seconds and echoes through the confines of this chamber, and with her looking absolutely maddened as tears drip loose from her eyes she suddenly rises to her feet and slams both of her fists against Mew's chest. Mew doesn't flinch at all despite Kairi's attack shaking the room they were in, and he just stood still and looked at her as she began to repeatedly pound his chest with both of her fists and exclaimed "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!"

After a few seconds of assaulting Mew's body Kairi started grunting in a frustrated manner at her inability to make Mew flinch. So she instead switches things up by covering her fists in aura and alternating which one punches Mew in the chest, and every time she strikes the aura shatters and forces her to build it back up again while she exclaimed "I HATE YOU! I HATE MY PEOPLE! I HATE GABRIEL! I HATE MY MOM!"

As her punches still failed to do anything, Kairi's legs began to give way, and she began to fall to her knees again while she continued to focus all of her attacks onto Mew's chest. This time she exclaimed "AND I ESPECIALLY HATE GRAVITUS! I HATE HIM WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING! I'LL DESTROY HIM! I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL MAKE SURE HE CAN NEVER COME BACK! AND THEN I'LL RUN AWAY FROM ALL OF YOU, I'LL GO DOWN TO EARTH MYSELF! THEN I NEVER HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOU BASTARDS AGAIN!"

Once she was on her knees, Kairi keeps pounding away at Mew's chest a little more weakly now, and her tears were simply flowing down her cheeks. "Why?! Why?! Why?! Why?!" Kairi exclaimed fervently, and the rate of which she punched Mew slowed down greatly as her arms slowly dropped to the ground until she laid both hands down in front of her and let her tears just drop to the ground while whimpering out a pitiful sounding "Why…?" Kairi was left to cry for a bit, and Mew hated himself for the fact that he didn't feel at all guilty for putting her in this emotional state.

Once Kairi was done crying, she asked Mew just one simple question "…Why do people like Gravitus exist?" "…I wish I could tell you…" Mew replied after finding that he did not know the answer, followed by Kairi lifting her upper body up a bit and laying her hands against her face and then admitting "God help me…I've been a broken person this whole time and didn't even realize it…Shina didn't just take herself away from me…She took away my ability to be happy and innocent with her…And all that was left is this stupid, ugly, selfish bitch!"

"…" Mew said nothing to Kairi and just closed his eyelids while folding his arms together against his chest, and Kairi continued to say "I just want my sister back…I just want her to come back to me with her bright smile, peppy attitude, and for her to tell me that everything is going to be alright…" "…Even if she were to come back this very second, I don't think it'd change anything. There's only one way to change things, and that is to stop Gravitus once and for all." Mew pointed out with the utmost seriousness in his voice.

Kairi removed her hands from her face and looked up a bit at Mew, and he asked her then and there "Kairi, do you want to fight for your people now?" Kairi lowered her hands to lay them atop her kneecaps and said to Mew with her head hung low "I-I don't know…I brought most of this upon myself, I get that now…But what does it matter if I fight for my people? I've already ruined my reputation, so even if I choose to be nice now they won't care…"

"…Maybe. I'm glad you're thinking about what I said, and I hope you KEEP thinking about how to handle your people after we're done with Gravitus…But right now, you should be focused on defeating Gravitus. That way when Shina returns to your city, she'll have nothing to worry about." Mew stated, and after a moment's hesitation Kairi nodded her head and pushed herself back onto her feet in a few seconds. She then wiped the remaining tears from her face and said "…You really want me to come with you still? I-I haven't even decided if I want to fight for my people yet…"

"Right now you could say the easiest way to deal with this problem of yours is to give up and go home. But I know you, I know you aren't going anywhere. You don't just give up near the end of it all, that would undo everything you've worked on so far. Struggling against not just others, but against yourself as well…That's the challenge all truly great warriors and heroes have had to overcome. If you don't have the desire to surpass yourself then what's the point? And if you don't lose something along the way then you don't deserve to look back. Your people have lost many in this long road to stopping this monster, so lets show them all that their sacrifices weren't for naught, that you can be the selfless person that your mother and sister are. They need hope, they need to have a reason to believe that there is something better out there than servitude to a tyrant. And I'll be damned if I'm just going to stand by and let a monster like him roam free any longer."

Once Mew's speech was at an end, Kairi simply blinked a few times in sheer disbelief that Mew could so easily go from nonchalant to angry to respectful without batting an eye. Smiling a bit at his speech, Kairi said to him "There's just one problem with that…We still have to face Aurian Pluto before we can reach Gravitus." Mew grinned at that point, telling her proudly "Now that's what I wanted to hear. So then, shall we stop standing around and do just that?"

He extended his right hand out and gestured his fingers behind him, and Kairi nodded her head in agreement of that course of action. Mew thus turned around and began to advance towards the staircase, and Kairi followed close behind, but not before looking over her right shoulder and whispering "…I'm going to do it Shina…You'll come back here to a better city, I promise…" She then cracked and smile and prepared to go into battle against Pluto and Gravitus by climbing the next staircase…

_Next Time: A Whisper from a Disgraced Soul_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: The Last Planet I: The King Who Lost It All**

The climb up the staircase to the last chamber of the Planetary Aurians was rather short, as Mew and Kairi had said all that they needed to at the bottom. As the two of them enter the final chamber, they were suddenly disrupted by something causing the entire pyramid to rumble violently for a few seconds. Mew could feel a pressure coming from the floor above them that was like nothing he had ever experienced before, and it was obvious just who was responsible for this power. Kairi found herself having a difficult time breathing for a few seconds because of the pressure being exerted, and she has to kneel down because of her momentary weakness.

"So he's arrived at the Pyramid…" Mew remarked as he found himself able to keep his footing until the pressure subsided. Kairi caught her breath and then lifted herself up before remarking "T-That was Gravitus' power? I can't believe that…It felt so powerful…" Mew folded his arms together and said in response to that as he stared towards the ceiling "He wouldn't have defeated all the Planetary Aurians and made them work for him if he wasn't stronger than all of them combined…We shouldn't worry ourselves about him yet though, he's just making us aware that he's waiting for us."

Kairi was confused by the fact that Gravitus knew about them, and Mew figured she was puzzled and quickly told her "All things considered, he's probably had access to Saturn's cameras the whole time. He knows a lot of our tricks because of that…I hope this doesn't worry you." Kairi shook her head as Mew glanced at her, and he smiled gently at that before looking on ahead at the portal at the very end of the room. The portal lied beyond some fallen, ruined pillars and arches, and in fact the entire room had tons of aesthetics resembling the ruins of a long lost castle, complete with cobwebs and dust.

Mew had a bit of a worried expression on his face as he looked at this environment, as he wondered what type of person would possibly set up their chamber like this. With a gesture of his right hand out Mew said "Alright, lets go." The two of them then climb over the ruins and go towards the portal to enter it, making one final leap through time and space that was a lot longer than any of them prior, and they ended up coming out of it and landing on top of a frigid, desolate dark grey planet that had no atmosphere, no gases, nothing but a clear view of the dark recesses of space and the numerous stars that inhabit it.

It was pretty cold on Pluto, so cold in fact that Kairi began shivering a bit upon reaching here, thus Mew had to give her a little heat in the aura of air around her body while doing the same for himself. "Where no man has gone before…The dwarf planet Pluto…" Mew commented as he pulled his right arm back towards his body and looks on ahead at the desolation before him. "…It shouldn't take us long to find the last Planetary Aurian. Lets go." He then said while gesturing on ahead.

The two of them thus move on ahead across the planet's surface, but it doesn't take them very long before they hear a noise coming from afar. It was a slow flute melody, which played regardless of the lack of air on the planet for sound to travel through. After a few seconds of walking towards that sound, Mew and Kairi find someone sitting on the ground while hunched over, his body covered by a tattered red cloth save for the brass flute he plays, and at this close proximity the sound of the flute comes off as quiet and melancholic.

Beside the person were two swords implanted deep into the ground, one with an hourglass for the handle with untamed sands swirling within it and a tall triangular blade with a sharp edge made of a glass containing the same sands from the hourglass, and the other sword having a handle made out of atoms ranging from big to small while it's triangular blade had an edge filled with a conglomerate of molecules. Both swords had a thin curved piece of metal stretched above the handles to help keep the swords gripped by the user.

After a few seconds of being observed by his company, this cloaked man pulled his flute away from his mouth and remarked in a posh and somewhat raspy tone "I do not receive visitors very often…And when I do, they have never come as a pair." Mew got right to the important matter and asked "Are you Aurian Pluto?" The man chuckled a bit at that question as he put the flute into his cloak and replied "Hmmm…Am I? Just because this planet is vacant in plant life, mountains, or even glorious rivers doesn't mean I am the only person here."

Kairi gave the man an annoyed glare before she said to him "Then just what are you doing here if you aren't him?" though she didn't believe for a second that the man in question wasn't Aurian Pluto. The man nevertheless knew of her suspicions and was humored by how flustered she sounded, something he didn't acknowledge though as he said "I am but a traveler of the cosmos, here to take a break on my long and endless journey."

"Hmm…And what are you doing on your journey?" Mew inquired while rubbing his chin, and the man stated to him "I am a collector of stories. There are an incalculable number of worlds out there in the universe, and as such an incalculable number of stories to be told for each one. If you are not too busy, may I humor you with one such tale that I have gathered?" "We really don't have time for stories. We're trying to find someone to fight." Kairi commented after a sigh while tapping her right foot impatiently on the ground.

"What if I told you a tale related to this very planet?" The man stated in a tone meant to stimulate the intrigue in the brains of his two guests. Mew paused in thought for a few seconds and then asked Kairi while leaning towards her "We might learn something about our opponent…Regardless of whether this guy is him or not." "Ugh, you know he's Aurian Pluto, I know he's Aurian Pluto…But I guess he's not going to fight us until he tells us his story, so lets just roll with it." Kairi replied with some hesitation.

"Alright, go right ahead, we'll hear you out." Mew commented, and the man folded his arms against his chest before laughing quietly a bit and saying "Fufufu…Then that is what I will do. Now I shall tell you a tale from long, long ago of the planet Pluto, and tell you about the mighty kingdom that used to reside upon these humble lands."

"_Long, long ago, before the days of the Elemental Overlord and the wars he was involved in, there existed a great and mighty planet, one far bigger than even Jupiter itself. This planet was called Pluto, named after the mighty god that once took residence in the heavens themselves. For tens of thousands of years, this planet was home to a holy utopia inhabited by a single race unified by the grand King Plutonia the 1__st__. King Plutonia believed in no wars, no racism, no disdain between his own race and those from other worlds…"_

"_Because the world was never ravaged by the bloodshed of war, the people that resided here were able to quickly advance their level of technology and their way of living to an almost heavenly degree. While the humans of Earth were still learning to build houses from mud and straw, the people of this planet had learned to salvage stone and metals from asteroids and meteors to create buildings as high as the Earth's highest mountain and vehicles that could travel at light speed with relative ease."_

"_But when the days of the first King's life were drawing to a close, the people of Pluto had realized quickly that they had spent so much time expanding the majesty of their kingdom that they had neglected to do something for their own lifespans so they could continue to live and bathe in the glorious world they had crafted. So began the age of mage craft and alchemy under the guidance of the King's son, where the history of the world shifted towards finding a way to make everyone immortal."_

"_But the focus on magic and alchemy came at a grave cost rather quickly. King Plutonia the 2__nd__ became greatly involved in dark magic, and because he did not know when to stop due to not having someone to tell him otherwise…It came to be that he poisoned his own people with dark magic, darkening their skin grey and making their ears turn pointed like an elf's are. But ironically, for cursing his own people with this impurity, he had also rewarded all of them with the immortality that they wanted, one that would last for generations and allow them to live for thousands of years."_

"_But the king was entranced by the power dark magic provided him, and quickly turned from a kindly king to a tyrant mad with power. Thus began the three thousand years of suffering for the people of Pluto, the planet ravaged by the war that the first king never wanted to happen. But eventually the 2__nd__ King desired to have an heir, as he realized that his 'immortality' could only prolong his life for so long. He did not trust any 'impure' and 'weak' woman to bear his child, so he used magic to create a son from his own DNA, naming him the third King afterwards…"_

"_But while his power was replicated, the vicious nature was not, and after he grew up it didn't take very long for the son to rebel against his father and kill him. He became the new King, and sealed away the dark magic into the deeper recesses of space never to be seen again. Thus began the age of restoration for Pluto, where the people had now become accustomed to their changed appearances and enjoyed the time of peace given to them by their new king."_

"_This king wished to fix the mistakes of his predecessor, and quickly worked to remake the beautiful utopia from the first king's era. It took quite a while to do this, but when they were done the people of Pluto were able to enjoy a grand four thousand years of peace, with their benevolent king watching over them. However, with the lingering effect of the second king's immortality looming over his people, there was a problem arising eventually that the third king knew he'd have to address…"_

"_The people of Pluto still wished to create children even after gaining immortality, meaning that the population of the planet was going to eventually grow so large that not even the grandiose planet would be able to hold them all, and all of the planet's surface had been used to create buildings and such for the people. The third King then came up with an idea to help his people out, and one that would benefit not just his own people, but other worlds as well."_

"_He would find a way to expand the mass of the planet to give it more surface space, and the same time sending his people out in colonies to help other worlds out. That would spread out the population enough to keep resources from being depleted on Pluto, and would give the other worlds a chance to grow and advance beyond what they are capable of. And it seemed as though someone was interested in that idea, as the king was soon approached by a cloaked man not long after."_

"_The man offered to help the King out, and showed him two swords of his own design. One was a blade that could alter the size of whatever it cuts or touches at the wielder's choosing, and the other was a blade that could alter the time of one's actions to become either slower or faster depending on what they wanted. But to change Pluto's size, the man would have to be guided to a part of the planet's surface. The King was more than willing to guide him to the center of the utopia, where the last patch of surface world was at."_

"_The man thus plunged both blades into the surface of the world, but not long after doing so the King felt the planet tremble and watched as slowly but surely the planet did not begin to grow but shrank instead. The man then lifted off his cloak and revealed himself to be a trickster god, one who took great joy and laughter in the fact that the King was so easily tricked into placing those swords into his planet. The King pulled the swords from the surface, but the trickster god revealed it was all too late, as once the spell of the swords went through it could not be stopped until it went through all the way."_

"_But the trickster god made it so the effects of this shrinking could not be reversed, meaning that the planet and it's utopia would reach a slow and eventual collapse. He laughed so happily, enjoying the distress on the King's face for quite a few seconds…But the trickster god was arrogant…Far, far too arrogant, and underestimated just how little it took to push the King over the edge. Taking both blades in his hands, the King slashed the trickster god across the chest to slow him down to a crawl so he could not escape, and then he slowly pushed the other sword into his body until he touched the god's heart, and the moment it connected the heart shrunk down to the point that the god's body flooded with blood and burst apart across the skin."_

"_The god was dead, punished for his foolishness as all gods of his kind deserved, but the King could do nothing to bring his planet back to normal size now. He could only watch in agony as the planet shrunk over an extended period of time, and no matter how desperately he searched through the archives he found nothing in the tomes to create a spell capable of reversing the damage caused by the god. His planet was doomed, and the King was the only one who did not give up in believing otherwise."_

"_The buildings crumbled as they were pulled close together due to how connected they were to the planet, and the people of this world took their spaceships and scattered out across the cosmos, saying nothing to their King as they ran in cowardice away from the problem that could've been fixed in time. The King chose to stay on this shrinking world, watching as all that he worked on was thrown out into the depths of space thanks to the planet's shrinking gravitational pull, and eventually all that was left was the barren world you see before you now…Not a single trace of the majesty built upon it remaining…"_

"_In a single moment, the good intentions of the third and last King of Pluto were exploited by a god who thought himself greater than the lesser beings of the universe, and for all of his hard work and efforts to rebuild the damages caused by his father the third King accidentally ended up being the destroyer of the planet's legacy. And because of the way his immortality worked, the King could only sit on this planet alone, waiting for the day when his body would eventually give out."_

"_But the universe seemed to have other intentions for the king, as merely a thousand years later a man birthed from the cosmos itself approached the king, and gave him the power of an Aurian and true immortality to allow him to defend what remained of Pluto. It was such an odd decision to make, but the King could not attack the man for 'cursing' him with these gifts as he quickly vanished from sight. So the legacy of the King continued without any end in sight…"_

"Now you might want to take pity on that King for all that he had to endure, you might want to sympathize with the tragedy of his legacy…But the King accepts no such sympathy from the likes of you both, for the King in question is I." At the end of the man's story, he grabs the head of his cloak and stands upright, pulling the cloak right off of himself and letting it float away from the planet without a care as he turns himself around and reveals what he looks like to his two guests.

The man had pointed elven ears and blue-grey like skin along with red eyes. His hair was very long and messy and snow white. He wears a gold-black sleeveless vest over some diamond chain mail and an icy-blue shirt underneath that, his pants are regal white with a smooth appearance and a golden sheen to it. His nose was pointed slightly and his skin was wrinkled to show his age, especially around his hands and bare feet, and as he grinned a bit one could see his disjointed teeth.

The man chuckled a little as he held his arms out a bit and spreads his fingers out, using a little exertion of magical power to lift the swords behind him from the ground and have them spin around as they levitate towards the underside of his palms, and he moves his hands together before his waist while holding his swords close to the ground and laying his hands atop the handles. Then, the cloak from earlier falls down and wraps itself around his neck to act as the man's cape, finishing his ensemble.

"I am your final obstacle on your journey to reach Gravitus. I am King Plutonia the 3rd, or as you called me…Aurian Pluto." The man said quietly but proudly as he held his head up high and looked at his two guests with all of his glory. Mew just shrugged his shoulders and admitted "So we figured." Pluto grinned at that remarked and then said to Mew "Hmmm…So you did, Elemental Overlord and scion of Sage Auris."

"Y-You know who we are?" Kairi stated in a tone of surprise, and the man closed his eyelids and stated "How could I not? I've watched you both scale the Pyramid, defeating the other eight Planetary Aurians along the way…It was thanks to that one girl's cameras that I was able to observe your progress, awaiting the moment when you would reach me with baited breath." Mew gestured his right hand out and remarked "You've been watching us since we've entered the temple then?"

"Yes. I must admit…I laugh a bit at Auris' desperation leading her to call in a human to defeat Gravitus, even if said human doth act as a vessel for the Elemental Overlord's powers. But her mistake was assuming that they would even make it Gravitus, for in all the years I have worked with the man, not a single person, whether mortal, god or alien, has ever made it past me." Pluto stated with the utmost confidence in his voice, but Mew turned that confidence back on him by saying "That's a bold claim to make. It's almost like you want to suffer your first defeat today."

"Hahaha…Such arrogance is to be expected from a human, I suppose. Trust me, I'd be quite humored if someone out there could defeat me, but over the course of two-thousand years I have bathed my swords in the blood of my foes…Though my highest casualty count shall always come from the foolish Aurians who dare to rebel against their fate." Pluto said in a mocking manner, which sets Kairi off and makes her lean forward while proclaiming "How dare you say that! They were your own people!"

Pluto firmed his expression into a glare and told Kairi off by saying "Foolish child, have you really not figured it out by now? The only Aurian amongst all nine of us is Earth. Seven of them were or are human, and then all that leaves is me, and does my appearance strike you as that of either Aurian of human? So in the end, the only 'traitor' to his people is Earth, that stubborn honor bound fool…." Kairi reeled back a bit immediately and said in a tone of surprise "W-What?"

"The only reason we bear the title of Planetary Aurians is because that foolish old man 'blessed' us with the blood of Aurian kind. Otherwise it'd once again be the name of humans dominating such a title." Pluto stated, and Mew quickly folded his arms together and said to Kairi without looking her way "He's just trying to rile you up with his words…But you also seem pretty nonchalant about revealing all this information, Pluto, why is that?"

Pluto glanced at Mew and said "As I said before, none who have made it to my planet have ever lived. What harm is there in revealing all that I have to offer if you are simply going to perish anyways? You could afford to learn a few things before you die regardless, human." Mew glared a bit at Pluto for that remark, but then he held his right hand out and wiggled it about while asking "Fair enough…So let me guess, you're working for Gravitus because he offered you a way to bring Pluto back to it's original size and get your people to come back here?"

Pluto reared his head back and began laughing slightly, and once he was done he said while lowering his head down "Please…You think I was tempted to Gravitus' side? Let me remind you now of what I said in the tale. The trickster god ensured that no magic in this entire universe could ever turn Pluto back to normal, and as far as my 'people' go…They all died not long after abandoning their home, presumably because they could only be immortal while residing on this planet. And even if they were still alive, I could not give a single damn about bringing those cowards back. They made their decision to leave and abandon thousands of years of history because of one mistake that wasn't even my fault."

Mew firmed his glare with a little more anger in his expression as he bluntly asked Pluto "So what you're saying is…You joined Gravitus willingly without having to be bribed or defeated." Pluto chuckled again and replied with a grin "You're finally learning, human. That's right…Out of all the Planetary Aurians, Gravitus chose me to be his partner, for not only am I the strongest of the nine, but because I understood and agreed with his grand ambitions."

Kairi clenched her right fist and exclaimed towards Pluto "The Planetary Aurians are supposed to protect other worlds, and yet you'd willingly work for a monster like Gravitus?! How could you?!" Pluto smirked at that remark and said "Before today you thought we were a myth, and now you think yourself an expert on how we operate? Still your tongue, scion of Auris, you are making a fool of yourself." Mew commented immediately in defense of Kairi's words "But she's not wrong. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Pluto firmed his expression into another glare without moving any other muscle, telling Mew bluntly "Tell me, you call Gravitus a monster, but isn't it true that the only atrocities you've seen or heard him commit relate only to his own race?" "…So what?" Mew remarked after a moment of thought, and Pluto said "You must work on your faulty memory, human…Remember what the last Planetary Aurian you faced said? Gravitus has made twenty planets his own without shedding any blood on a single one. Tell me…What type of monster brings peace to other worlds? Certainly none that I have ever seen."

Mew couldn't say anything in regards to that at first, instead gritting his teeth slightly as Kairi took over and remarked "It's been said that he conquered twenty worlds peacefully…But how much of that is really the truth, especially considering you're Gravitus' right-hand man." Mew was impressed that Kairi pointed that out before him, but Pluto replied without wavering in his confidence "You can have every reason to doubt it coming from me…But why would Neptune lie to you? She has plenty of ways to prove that Gravitus did shed blood on those worlds via her little network, and yet she confidently told you otherwise. Face it, scion of Auris…The only 'atrocities' Gravitus has committed is towards his own people, and considering the dark history of the Ten Sages it is only right that their greatest mistake has led to their people's suffering."

"Where do you get off saying any of that? What happened to the policies of the first King Plutonia that you wished to uphold? Did you just forget them because your people sensibly left an unsalvageable wo-" "Silence, human!" Pluto suddenly raised his voice for the first time to stop Mew from speaking any further, and as Mew felt a pressure exuding from the man both powerful and divine he stopped and looked a bit shocked as Pluto then stated to him "Humans…Always thinking they know everything…"

Pluto widened his eyes a bit in a maddened manner, telling Mew bluntly with a hint of rage in his voice as he grasped the top of his sword's handles tightly "Not much has changed for me since my 'people' abandoned this world, boy. I still believe in bringing peace to other worlds and sharing knowledge to help them grow, but I have also become jaded enough to realize that not all races are going to be so worthy of reaching that level of perfection that we had achieved. Humans in particular are by far the biggest example though, especially those born on this type of Earth."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mew asked quietly and calmly, and Pluto told him while holding his head up high "You humans think you can just send out your pods and spaceships to spread your species across other worlds, that you can so easily look down on all other planets and think that you know everything about them. You've dared to not call my world a true planet multiple times, you make mockery of it without consideration that someone could live on that world…You humans have always had the mentality that if you find another alien race, you'd be able to crush it with relative ease. While I laugh at such ideas, I have no intention of risking the possibility by offering you humans the knowledge I have within me, especially when you have made every damn effort possible to belittle my planet."

At this point Mew swung his right hand out and stepped forward, summoning his sword into his hand while stating "You know, we're wasting time here listening to you. You're Gravitus' right-hand man, I don't need any further reason to defeat you after that." Pluto closed his eyelids and shook his head a bit, stating to Mew "Arrogant child…You seem to be forgetting something rather crucial about this whole scenario."

Before Mew could realize what Pluto was referring to, a small turret suddenly popped up from the ground in front of Kairi, and the turret sprayed her in the face with a blast of some sort of gas, bypassing even the wind Mew had given to her. Kairi quickly closed her eyelids and groaned in a nauseating manner while murmuring out "W-W-What?" and falling directly onto her back. Mew glanced behind him quickly as the turret dropped down back into the ground, remarking in a puzzled tone "Kairi!"

He then looked back at Pluto and exclaimed "What the hell are you doing?!" Pluto snapped his right fingers before replying to Mew with "Remember…All Planetary Aurians are ordered to capture the scions of Auris if they make it into the pyramid and bring them to Gravitus." Suddenly, a chain wraps itself around Kairi's right leg and drags her quickly across the ground, with Mew noticing this and quickly going to cut the chain off with his sword. But Pluto grabs onto the handles of his swords and intercepts Mew's attack with lightning reflexes, commenting as he looks Mew right in the eyes "Ah ah ah…Not yet, human."

Mew retaliates by swinging his sword past Pluto's blades and hitting underneath them, pushing them and Pluto's arms up just enough for him to get a clean shot at Pluto's face with his left fist. But Pluto suddenly summons forth a bright golden-white aura around his body and takes the full might of Mew's punch head-on, and though the planet quakes from the impact Pluto doesn't at all flinch much to Mew's surprise. Pluto then grinned and leaped back to the point of the planet where Kairi was suddenly pulled up off the ground by four chains, one wrapped tightly around each of her limbs as she was completely unaware of what was going on. The two chains holding her arms up were suspended by miniature satellites.

As Pluto stood before where Kairi was suspended he held his arms out and pointed his swords towards the ground, swinging the one with the hourglass handle at a fifth chain that began to rise up from the ground behind him. The blade connected with said chain as it began to wrap around Kairi's neck, and Mew quickly swung his left hand out to try and move the chains away from Kairi's body, but to his shocked none of them budged even an inch. Pluto said to Mew as he noticed his surprise "Believe me, you will not break those chains that way. That is the nature of these swords, after all. They will finish their designated task without any interruption, and choke the life right out of the scion of Auris…I will then bring her lifeless body to Gravitus for use in his plans. After all, the Neo Drive does not discern those that are alive from those that are dead, so long as they be worthy of it's power."

Mew angrily gripped the handle of his sword in both hands and held it towards Pluto, firming his expression in a serious manner as he tells his foe "Then I will just cut the chains down. You aren't going to get away with this, Pluto." Pluto once more held his swords down in front of him, exuding his aura around his body as bright as a heavenly light while he explained to Mew "You fail to understand that you have already been chosen to lose this battle, Elemental Overlord. It was written in divine law since the very beginning of your people's existence."

"When the first woman and man bit into that bitter fruit, they bathed the world in sin, making all that lives and breath there impure. Ever since that day, humans have been arrogant, destructive, and unlearning…They need some divine force to guide them back down the proper path, a being who has experience ruling over a race far more advanced than what they currently are, a king who has endured the tragedy of his fallen world and lived to become stronger than ever for it. And that is what Gravitus has promised me…Once he has acquired the Neo Drive, he will give me your Earth as the reward for my services, and I will do away with the unjust and impure, reawakening the world to a new, divine era! I will start things over anew, and never again allow things to be ruined by some arrogant god!"

Once Pluto's proclamation of certain victory was at an end, Mew just had but one thing to say to him as calmly as he could muster "And just how many people are you going to kill before you consider the planet to be pure?" Pluto pulled his swords from the ground and said to Mew as his response "Why should you be concerned? You aren't going to live long enough to see any of that." He then truly began the battle by charging right at Mew at the speed of light, swinging both of his blades down in an X-shaped cross right at the center of Mew's body.

Mew raised his own sword up to block Pluto's attack and repelled him back with a powerful enough push that makes the man leap back a few feet and then casually swing his sword of time around in his right hand while remarking "Ten minutes until the girl has the life choked out of her…But I will end your life before then, human." Mew doesn't waste time listening to Pluto's words as he thrust his sword forward while coating the blame in flames to unleash a cylindrical blast of fire straight out at Pluto.

Pluto swung his left sword out and clashed with the flames using the very tip of his blade, making the fire divert itself around his entire body through multiple streams while noticing Mew running right past him in the process. But Pluto simply turns around and speeds off right after Mew, getting in his way quickly and thrusting his right foot up to kick Mew right in the chest and stop his movements instantly. Mew stumbles back a little back while finding himself winded by the blow, but as he lays a hand on his chest he looks up at Pluto and grits his teeth as the man stands before the chained Kairi and remarked "You're not going to slip past me like that."

Mew responded by swinging his sword out with one hand in an instant to launch a sharp blade of wind towards the chains, only for Pluto to exert his aura out from his body to cover the chains, which makes the wind blade disappear the moment it connects with the aura. Pluto's eyes then glowed bright as he fired off two laser beams of aura from them that struck Mew in the chest and burned two visible holes into his shirt, leaving behind some smoke from the impact as Mew then rushes right at Pluto and gets into another sword clash with him.

He slams his sword down against Pluto's right sword as he man casually lifts the blade up to defend himself, but Mew then zips behind the man at light speed to try and attack his unguarded back. The man just retaliates by flipping his left sword around and holding it behind himself to protect against Mew's attack, and as Mew attempts to use his speed again to strike Pluto on the left side of his body with a broad sweeping cut the man just spins his body in that direction and brings his already raised right sword down upon Mew's blade to push it down and out of the way of his body. This sudden diversion of Mew's arms hurts his bones and muscles a bit, but he decides that now was the best time to strike back against Pluto now that his swords were out of the way.

He thrusts his right shoulder out and makes poisonous spikes protrude out from it as he thrusts himself forward with bursts of fire from his legs. He aims for Pluto's chest, hoping to slip the spikes between the holes in the chain mail, but the moment the spikes touch the aura around Pluto's body they break apart with relative ease, once more surprising Mew. Pluto then smiled and pulled his right hand off of his sword for a moment and let it spin around in midair as he brought his hand up and grabbed Mew by his face, blasting him immediately with his aura to apply enough force Mew back eight inches.

Mew closed his eyes before the aura struck him, but that prevented him from watching as Pluto guided his released sword back into his hand while simultaneously using it to slash Mew diagonally across his chest. It was a small cut on his skin, but Mew suddenly felt the area around him distort slightly as he opened his eyelids. Pluto remarked as he slowly walked towards Mew "You cannot touch me. My aura is divinely blessed. None from the sinful Earth can be allowed to reach me because of that."

What Mew found odd was that Pluto spoke a bit slower than before, though he suspected that it was because the man wanted to arrogantly rub in what he knew to Mew. Mew dispelled his sword and thrust his hands out quickly to fire lightning streaks at Pluto, but the man simply swerved his body around to dodge the attacks with ease. He also knew the true purpose of Mew's attacks and quickly placed his aura around the chains binding Kairi so the lightning wouldn't burn through them.

"Eight minutes left…But doesn't it feel like it should be longer than that?" Pluto remarked before he spun his right sword around and dashed right at Mew. Mew leaped back and kicked down with his right foot to send a large blast of ice towards the ground around Pluto's feet, and upon impacting with the ground the ice erupts into a shell around Pluto's body. Mew quickly folds his arms back and cups the hands together to pour flames into a condensed sphere so he could burn through the chains, as Pluto's concentration on the aura was disrupted momentarily.

But then Pluto broke free from the ice with just a burst of aura, showing that the ice had merely covered that and not his actual body. Pluto then let go of his right sword and wiggled his fingers a bit to make two golden chains rip forth from the ground beside him and head straight for Mew, but before they began to wrap around him Pluto grabbed onto his right sword and spun around to make sure both blades slashed through the chains. This not only doubled the size of the chains but made them move much faster than before by accelerating their time.

As such the chains wrapped around Mew very quickly, but Mew was more surprised at the fact that he didn't get to fire off his attack in time. He thought he had calculated the charge time of his fire beam perfectly, but the fact that Pluto had now bound him in a sphere of gigantic chains showed him not only just how off he was but also made him realize that Pluto's sword was capable of slowing him down. But while that would be an important factor to remember Mew had to focus more on getting out of these chains.

While protecting himself with a thick sphere of wind Mew simultaneously wrapped the outside of it with very hot flames to try and melt through the chains. But Pluto wrapped the chains in his aura, knowing Mew's every move so perfectly that he did not at all change his expression away from his cocky smile. Pluto then took the chains Mew was wrapped in and made them swing above his head, and with their time accelerated they quickly slammed threw Mew around as it hit the ground, preventing him from using his elements as his head hit the gold chains hard.

Pluto then brought the chains back in front of him, but this time hit the surface of the planet so hard that it left a deep crater in it and broke the chains at Pluto's command. As Mew is bounced up upon being broken free from the chains, Pluto fired off a couple more eyes beams that struck Mew and suspended him in place while he suffered the damage from the blow, and then Pluto leaped right at Mew and slashed down with his right sword to cut him across the back and knock him towards the ground.

Mew lands on the ground and flips back immediately, landing on his feet as he looks up at Pluto and sees the man moving right down at him again. Now the man was seen moving slower because Mew was struck twice with the sword, though it was more that Mew's perception of time had become slower, which meant he had to compensate for his delayed reactions. Mew stepped back and then swept his right foot across the ground while spinning around, making the ground rise up as a wave of stone that went right over Pluto's body and created a gargantuan ramp at the same time.

Mew held his hands down and then sprinted forward, though it felt painful to move a bit as he didn't feel as though he was going at his full speed despite knowing he was. He climbed over the ramp and made it to the top before Pluto shattered the stone around him with a casual exertion of his aura. Mew tried to leap out and slash both of his arms out to send waves of sharp, slicing wind at the chains Kairi was held by. But Pluto moved his aura across the surface of the planet like streams, making certain that they'd envelop the chains before Mew's attack hit them.

Once Mew was forced to watch his efforts fail again, Pluto appeared before him and let go of his sword in order to punch Mew in the forehead to knock him out of the air and slam him against the front of his rocky elevation. Pluto then dropped down and swung his right sword out with most of his strength as it was coated in aura, but Mew quickly pulled his arms from the rocks and summoned his sword to block Pluto's attack. However, the clash of blades released Pluto's aura and created a slash that annihilated all the stone behind Mew.

Mew held his sword against Pluto's own as the two of them descended towards the ground, but then Pluto swung his other sword down to clash against Mew's blade and put all of his strength into pushing against Mew's weapon. Both of Pluto's swords were held at an X-shaped cross again, and he slowly moved their position around to force Mew to do the same. Mew was clearly embittered by the situation, and Pluto grinned and reminded him "Six minutes left now…But don't worry, you'll die not longer after you watch her perish."

Pluto spoke slowly only from Mew's perspective, and Mew did not say anything in response as he not only felt scared to hear his own voice come out slowly but also didn't want to give Pluto any acknowledgement. But Pluto did not care of what Mew thought, and said to him "Where is your nonchalance, human? What happened to your quipping and sarcasm? What happened to that mask you wore to hide your selfishness, Elemental Overlord?"

Mew expressed a moment of anger on his face, followed by Pluto telling him "Oh don't think you can hide it from me. I can see the selfishness in those eyes of yours, the same selfishness that my jaded self has come to experience…And I know exactly what your selfishness is pointed towards. Every action you've made in our battle so far has been influenced by your selfishness, human…Actually, lets cut the ambiguity of my words. You and I both know that despite everything that has happened, despite all words that have been exchanged between you both…You desire above all else to have the love of Auris' scion all to yourself, Elemental Overlord."

Mew widened his eyes at that point a little bit, and Pluto stated to Mew after a momentary chuckle "You are far too easy to read. No matter how many masks you place upon your face, you can never conceal the selfishness within your eyes human…And it's because I understand your selfishness, because I've seen everything you have to offer, that your ambitions of love will never be fulfilled. Five minutes remain until it all comes crashing down, Elemental Overlord…"

_Next Time: The Selfish Cycle _


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: The Last Planet II: A Hope Born of Selfishness**

Mew hated everything that Pluto had been saying to him. He hated every single word because above all else, he couldn't deny that the man was right about his desires and selfishness. Having to hear these words spoken to him with his own time slowed down was just excruciatingly painful, and having heard enough of what Pluto was telling him and being reminded of how long he had left to save Kairi Mew quickly created an eruption of flame in front of him for the purpose of pushing himself back away from Pluto's locked blades.

Once he had put some distance between him and Pluto, Mew quickly went on the offensive and launched multiple fireballs at Pluto from his blazing aura even though he knew they would just dispel once they touch Pluto's aura. The man just stood still and took the attack while chuckling quietly, and after swinging his left sword around he used a wave of his right fingers to pull another golden chain from the ground and thrust it at Mew. He slashes the chain once with his left sword to hasten it's time twice over.

The chain flies at Mew and starts whipping at him violently, it's rapid movements combined with Mew's slowed time meant that Mew took a couple mighty lashes across his body before he brought his sword up to defend himself. He rapidly slashes the air to the best of his ability, moving it around his entire body as he suspected that Pluto would attempt an attack from behind. But because of taking the time to swing his sword behind himself he allowed the chain to lash him a few more times than necessary, which pushed him back a couple inches after a few seconds.

Pluto then made his move by speeding right behind Mew in a second and thrusting his right sword forward at Mew's right shoulder. Mew grit his teeth and sensed Pluto's movements, but the blade plunged an inch into Mew's flesh and muscle before he could place steel on his skin to protect himself. Though he stopped the sword from digging further into his shoulder, what little Pluto did was enough to make Mew groan in pain as the man pulled the sword from his flesh with some blood and viscera on the blade.

Mew turned around and swung his sword around to hold it backhanded and swing it around to deflect the chain to the best of his ability, coating it in fire so it could start melting it down until Pluto decided to put his aura into said chain. His motions were slowed by the scar in his shoulder and nothing else, meaning Pluto chose not to use his sword's ability. Mew then thrust his left hand out and forced thick wooden branches to erupt from the ground and attempt to envelop Pluto.

But not even nature could touch the divinity of Pluto's aura, leading to the man slicing right through the wood with his right sword and launching the upper halves of them out into space with a burst of his aura while simultaneously setting his eyes aglow and firing laser beams right at Mew's forehead. The laser beams strike Mew and make him lurch his head back while burning a bit into his skin, and he takes a few lashes to his back with the chains, this time the attacks being strong enough to rip through his shirt and cut into his skin.

"Your desperation will all be for nothing…Three minutes left until the end, human." Pluto reminded in a calm, mocking tone before stepping forward slowly and then casually slicing Mew across the chest in a different direction than he had done much earlier with his right sword. This manages to slow Mew's time down even further, to the point that Mew felt as though he took two minutes just to do something as simple as lowering his head. By the time he looked down, Pluto had already made the earlier chain sink into the ground and placed himself face-to-face with Mew again.

Pluto grabs Mew by the chin after letting go of his left sword and the lifts him up as high as he could, putting a firm enough grip onto Mew's jaw to start cracking the bones. He then remarks "You should've made one last quip before you were became silent. Now your last words will be a question that you'll never get to see answered…" Pluto then moved his hand to Mew's neck and used his might to slam the boy against the ground, the impact being felt by Mew for what felt like an eternity.

After Pluto slammed Mew against the ground he pulled him right up and let go of him, then cut him across the chest with his right sword to slow him down even further. Pluto then slowly walked around Mew's body as the boy turned around and descended in mid-air, attempting to bring his sword out in front of him while gritting his teeth barely. Once Mew had turned around all the way to look at Pluto, the man sliced him again with his right sword to slow him down further, and this time he cut deep enough that blood slowly sprayed out from Mew's body afterwards.

Mew pushed back on his body with air as he was slowed down even further, leaning back while Pluto shook his head slightly and remarked "Two minutes remain…But you still keep trying to fight on. Your body crawls slowly through your remaining time in this world, each second lasting hours in your mind and yet you won't at all break. I bet even as I speak you believe that you will win, that you will save the poor girl from her fated demise and she will suddenly love you for it."

Pluto spun his left sword around and slowly walked towards Mew, telling him as he raised said sword up and poked the tip of it against the left side of his chest "This will be how you'll die, Elemental Overlord…Just like the last arrogant god that opposed me, I will slowly plunge this sword into your chest, reaching down until I get to your heart. Then I will use my sword's power to shrink your heart down slowly, and you'll have to experience an incredibly slow and agonizing death while simultaneously watching the one you love perish from suffocation. Don't worry though human, you have earned this demise for daring to try and defeat me."

Pluto smiled a bit and looked at Mew's serious expression with his eyes widened a bit in anticipation, whispering to him quietly "This is your last minute of life…And what a glorious failure this has been for you. You failed your world, failed the Aurian race, and once I deliver the girl's dead body to Gravitus, he will acquire the Neo Drive and use it's power to bring peace to all worlds. He will accomplish what you Elemental Overlords never could. Farewell, arrogant human…"

Pluto slowly began to push his sword into Mew's chest, but as the blade dug into Mew's flesh the boy suddenly disappeared from sight in a mere second, leaving Pluto to apply too much force to his blade and thrust it forward the rest of the way while widening his eyes in surprise. "W-What?!" Pluto suddenly proclaimed in a tone of complete and utter surprise, and as he widened his eyes and began to look around he lowered his guard enough that he was left frozen in shock as he hears a few sounds of a sword cutting through steel and said steel falling to the ground in multiple clangs from behind.

Twitching a bit, Pluto slowly turns around to look at the source of the noise being made, and he finds himself understandably confused when he sees Mew standing in the middle of the broken chains with Kairi resting atop his right arm as it's folded in front of his chest. But now Mew had changed forms. Now he was in his Light Form, with angelic wings folded beside his armored body as he wore the angelic garb and armor that is to be expected of this form, and the diamond katana of his held in his hilt. Mew looked down at Kairi with a serious but somewhat relieved expression, and as he took a breath that flowed naturally through time he seemed to be happy that he made it in time.

Kairi's neck had a bit of red on it from the chain getting so close, but Mew laid two of his left fingers atop the neck and began pouring light from his body to help her heal. He could do nothing about her being unconscious at the moment. Mew did not acknowledge Pluto's presence at the moment until the man said in a slightly disbelieving voice "I-Impossible…How are you doing this? Your time was slowed to a crawl!" Mew then lifted his head up midway through the man's sentence and stared at him, explaining calmly to him "Looks like you should've been watching me before I entered the pyramid, otherwise you would've seen this coming…But even then, you wouldn't have been able to stop it."

Pluto grit his teeth slightly and demanded from Mew "Explain!" Mew just closed his eyelids and told him right away "It's not that hard to figure out. I picked up on just how much you were slowing my time with every slash you performed, so I predicted your actions and setup an opportunity to change into my Light Form, since I knew you'd waste time boasting that you had won. And as an added bonus, changing forms undid my time being slowed."

Pluto grit his teeth even more now, feeling very insulted that Mew undid the power of his swords so easily. Mew opened his eyelids and told him and said "I know you must feel frustrated by this, but as I felt time being slowed down for what felt like an eternity I was also experiencing my own frustrations at everything you were talking about. Cause in the end, I couldn't admit to myself that you were wrong."

Mew then looked down at Kairi's unconscious body and remarked "But let me tell you something Pluto. I do want Kairi to love me, I want her to become a better person too…But I also can't deny the reality of my situation. It's dangerous for me to love someone, and you want to know why that is?" Mew then raised his left hand up and pointed both fingers at his head, telling the befuddled Pluto quietly "Because ever since two or so years ago, a demon has been inhabiting the deepest reaches of my subconscious."

Mew then moved his hand away from his head while further explaining to Pluto "He's been waiting all this time, watching everything I've been doing and patiently anticipating the moment where I lose control of my emotions and get angry, which will break down the barriers I set up on my subconscious and allow him to get closer and closer to controlling my body. Anyone I choose to love would be slaughtered instantly before my very eyes once he awakens, and then he'd proceed to destroy everything else in the universe. I can't take the risk of admitting my love directly to Kairi because of this."

"You make a mockery of your holy attire by admitting you have a demon inside of you…You make a mockery of all things divine with your existence, human!" Pluto exclaimed in a barely subdued fit of rage as he gripped his swords tightly, and Mew closed his eyelids again and said "And I won't deny that. My reasons for helping the Aurians are selfish, especially since it's to try and get something I know I can't obtain…In the end, I may be selfish, but as you said…" Mew lifts his head up and says with opened eyelids "I am a human…"

Mew then covers Kairi in a protective sphere of light and moves her off to the side of his body, putting his right hand onto the handle of his katana as he firmly told Pluto "We're both selfish, you and I…But that's why I cannot lose. Cause now that I've seen this reflection of selfishness in the mirror, I can't say I like it." "How dare you assume that…If we are both selfish beings, then only the one with a stronger will shall win! And my will has been ironed through thousands of years!" Pluto stated firmly.

"That's where you're wrong. It's not about who has the stronger will, it's about what we're selfishly fighting for. You're following a monster to fulfill your selfish desire to punish the humans for crimes they couldn't possibly have been aware they were committing against your planet's history…But my selfishness? My selfishness is going to not only bring about the end of that monster, but free an entire race from his control and hopefully liberate a girl from the pain and suffering brought on by her older sister's disappearance."

Mew then pulls his diamond katana from his hilt and points it right at Pluto, telling him with a firm expression as he flares a holy light around his body "I'm not going to hold anything back this time Pluto. I'm declaring this now…You are going to lose in seven minutes, and in that time period you won't lay a single scratch on me or Kairi again." Pluto's heart beats heavily against his chest out of anger and stress, and he slammed his right foot against the ground before proclaiming with all of manner of madness present on his face "ABANDON YOUR ARROGANCE, HUMAN!"

Pluto flared up his divine aura to it's maximum capacity, making his aura spread across the very surface of the planet in a mighty wave, but some of it doesn't touch the area around Mew's body as the boy just firms his expression into a glare and only flinches slightly at Pluto's full power being unleashed. Mew also watched as Pluto's aura affected the very atmosphere of the planet, creating a radiant rainbow of lights that blanket the blackness of space and give the battlefield a true air of divinity, which is quite ironic at this point considering how this battle has basically boiled down to a battle of selfish desires.

Pluto then ran right at Mew while holding both of his swords out, telling him bluntly "You can't even touch me! I will slow you down again and end your life! This defiance is pointless!" Pluto swings his right sword right up at Mew's face, but Mew quickly raised his sword up and easily deflected Pluto's slash. The man pulled his arm back and then thrust his left sword forward while Mew was in the middle of his swing, but Mew moved his head to the right to dodge the attack easily.

Quickly Mew raised his left hand up and grabbed onto Pluto's left wrist, using this position to draw the man in closer and slam his armored elbow right into Pluto's nose as fast and hard as he could. The man's nose bones could be heard cracking slightly, and as the attack connects Mew lets go of Pluto's wrist so he is forced to stumble back a few feet. Once Pluto stops moving back, he feels something unfamiliar dripping from his nostrils.

He lifts his right hand up and touches the liquid coming from his nose, and upon pulling his hand away from his face he sees a smear of purple liquid across his fingertips. "I-I-Is this…my blood…?" Pluto was clearly frightened by what he witnessed, indicating that he had never once bled in his entire life. Pluto twitched a bit, not just for the fact that he was bleeding from his nose, but specifically because Mew had managed to bypass his divine aura.

"W-What are you?" Pluto murmured, and Mew swung his sword around and told him quietly "I already said it…I'm only human." Mew then walked towards Pluto and raised his sword up with his right hand and brought it down towards Pluto, but the man swung his right sword up above him and deflected the attack. Mew quickly moved his sword down and went for Pluto's legs, followed up by the man using his other sword to deflect the attack. However, with the way Pluto had positioned his swords, Mew quickly slashed his sword horizontally between both swords and cut through the main's chain mail to nick the skin behind it.

"Six minutes left…" Mew remarked as blood emerges slowly from the cut on Pluto's skin. Pluto then retaliates by slashing both of his swords quickly at Mew's forehead, but Mew uses his light energy to create a small prismatic barrier to guard against the sword slashes while he stood himself upright. Pluto rapidly swung his swords at Mew to try and hit him somewhere, ANYWHERE, just to prove his supposed arrogance wrong. But Mew was keeping calm and swung his sword around at a faster pace to deflect Pluto's attacks.

After a few seconds of countering Pluto's desperation, Mew pushed his body back with a sprint of speed that left behind streaks of light to show the path he traveled and sheathed his sword into his hilt for two seconds, charging light up greatly before pushing forward, ducking himself underneath one of Pluto's attacks before drawing his sword from the hilt with a burst of light to make the blade come out faster, which allows him to instantaneously swing his sword up with one hand and strike hard against the blade that could change the size of whatever it sliced, making it get knocked right of Pluto's grasp and launched out into the depths of space.

Mew then surprised Pluto by leaping up into the air and grabbing onto the handle of the size-changing sword in his left hand, and he used light speed movement to land onto the ground and create a small crater with a great deal of control over his own strength before he looks at Pluto, who widened his eyes and exclaimed "How DARE you touch my sword!" Pluto leaped at Mew in a rage while grasping his other sword in both hands, bringing his body down quickly while positioning it so the tip of his sword could cut through Mew's armor and hopefully reach his skin.

But Mew just swung his left sword out and struck the center of Pluto's blade, telling him calmly "This was never your sword. You took it for yourself, Pluto. What I don't get is why you did so considering how much ruin they brought to your planet." As Mew went through his sentence Pluto landed on the ground and began violently swinging at Mew's body with his sword, exclaiming repeatedly but two words "Shut up!" each uttering becoming more unhinged until Mew silenced him momentarily by jabbing the back of his katana's handle into Pluto's chest.

This impact created a shockwave that blew apart some of the divine aura spread across the ground, and Mew stepped forward onto the bare surface of the planet as Pluto was pushed back a few feet with his sword raised into the air and his mouth paused in an agape manner. Once he was directly before Pluto's body, Mew dropped the sword-altering sword and swung his arm over to grab onto the handle with both hands, carrying the weight of his own light into the blade before he brought it forward and swung it right across Pluto's body diagonally.

The sky was bathed in the glow of Mew's light for a few seconds while the bright scar consumed Pluto's body, dealing a hefty amount of damage but only scarring his skin slightly due to how the tip of the katana connected with the body. Pluto was sent flying off the planet a grand total of a hundred feet before he recovered from being knocked back, only for him to immediately take another hit to his body as Mew kicked the man's second blade off of the ground and sent it flying so precisely through the air that it impaled itself through Pluto's body without touching a single vital organ.

Even so, Pluto gagged a bit and coughed up some blood, and as Mew went flying his way to go for another attack the man had no choice but to pull his second sword from his own body and let the blood float out into the weightlessness of space as he swung it away and proceeded to launch himself right at Mew while angrily proclaiming "You will not defeat me, human!" He then lit his eyes up and fired two laser beams at Mew, but the boy stopped in place and folded his right wing before his body while coating it in a subtle reflective barrier of light.

Once the lasers hit that barrier, they are launched right back at Pluto's forehead, making his skin get visibly singed as he lurches back in pain. Mew then gets behind Pluto and sheathes his katana for a moment, using both of his hands to instead pound Pluto right in the back to send him hurtling down towards the planet's surface. Once Pluto crashed against the ground he was buried under five feet of rock as his divine aura puffed up into the air. Mew landed on the ground and took a few steps towards the hole while keeping a cautious hand on the handle of his sword.

A right move to make as Pluto burst from the ground behind him and prepared to drop both of his swords down at Mew's backside with a single slash, his face absolutely battered with blood and rage. But as Mew whispered "Two minutes…" he turned around in and instant and used his sword to swipe the air and defend against both of Pluto's swords while pushing himself back a couple inches, folding his wings inward for safe keeping as he stood himself upright and held his sword out in his right hand in a diagonally upright position.

Pluto runs at Mew and rapidly slashes his swords out while pressing forward, wanting nothing more than to hit Mew just once. He had devolved into madness and desperation, the inevitability of defeat present on his face as he panted violently and continued to attack, with Mew swinging his sword around to make sure he kept Pluto from striking him once, all the while Mew spent time thinking about how Pluto must be feeling at the moment.

Pluto had gone two-thousand years without being defeated, and now his first and possibly only defeat was coming soon and it greatly frightened him. Worst of all, he was losing to a human, the sinful creature he had mocked endlessly before the tables were turned against him, and it broke all of his arrogance to the point that he could not muster up a single insult. But Mew knew that there was something more to Pluto's behavior, that deep down the man felt fear.

And that fear had to be directed towards Gravitus. Pluto must fear the possibility that for his failure to defeat Mew here and now, Gravitus will punish him with death if Mew doesn't do the job himself. But Mew had no intention of killing Pluto, even for all the man had done, for he had a plan in mind for Pluto's fate. After a straight minute of blocking Pluto's violent assault, Mew leaped back and grabbed onto his sword with both hands, remarking quietly "The last minute is upon us…Lets end this."

Mew ignited his blade with bright light and then swung it right down at Pluto, hitting the man's two blades hard and pushing him back quite a few feet while flashing the light through the sky in a single second. He then sprinted forward and brought his sword down again in nearly the same fashion, pushing Pluto's arms down as the man frantically proclaimed "No! No! No!" But Mew kept up his assault with quick and powerful slashes in differing directions to work against the way Pluto positioned his blades in defense.

Each clash brought forth more light into the atmosphere and pushed away the air of divinity spread across the planet's surface with the sheer strength of Mew's attacks. Mew then continued attacking Pluto, but this time forced the man to lift his right sword up vertically, and in a millisecond after doing so Mew slammed his blade against it to knock the sword out of Pluto's hand and send it flying a fair distance away. Pluto looked on in shock for but a second until Mew continued his assault without hesitation, which forced Pluto to grab his remaining sword in both hands and swing it about wildly to defend himself in futility.

At this point Pluto was left with nothing but anguished cries of "Bastard! Bastard! Bastard bastard bastard!" over and over again as he began to see flashes of his life before his eyes, all of which were cut away by the light radiating from Mew's sword until there was nothing left for him to see but the calm expression on Mew's face. Mew then hit the side of Pluto's sword to knock it out of his hand, leaving him completely defenseless as Mew then sheathed his blade and prepared himself for just one more attack.

"Ten seconds…" Mew said, counting down the moments in his head before he pulled his sword from his hilt with five seconds remaining, performing a series of slashes so fast that not even Pluto could keep track of them all, and Mew had warped right behind him with his sword held above him in his right hand, a star-pattern of light etched into Pluto's body as Mew flipped the grip of his sword and quickly sheathed it back up, and the light cut into Pluto's body just deep enough to make blood erupt out. Pluto's mouth spit out some blood as well as the man found himself unable to stand any longer, dropping to his knees before landing stomach first onto the ground, resting in a pool of his own blood.

Mew then remarked "Down to the last second perfectly…" and returned to his regular form, fully healed from being in Light Form for that long. Pluto's effects on the atmosphere of the planet subside, and Mew turns around and slowly walks over to the sphere he put Kairi in to protect her, which was coming apart now that Mew wasn't maintaining it with Light Form. He used both of his arms to catch Kairi's body, finding that she was still unconscious for the time being. Mew then turned around and began to walk towards the portal off of this world, but only made it so far before he felt something weakly grabbing at his left leg.

He looked down and saw Pluto staring up at him with desperate eyes as he used whatever strength he could to keep grabbing onto Mew's leg, pleading to him as his body quivered "K-Kill me! Kill me damn it! You can't leave me like this!" Mew kicked Pluto's grip off of his leg and told him with calm bluntness "Can't I? I'm not going to kill you Pluto…If you want that job done, either do it yourself or wait for Gravitus to come and do it for your first failure in his service."

"Why? Why won't you kill me?!" Pluto begged to know, and Mew told him afterwards "I think being humiliated by an 'arrogant, selfish human' is enough of a punishment for you." He left the subject at that as he continued his walk towards the portal, but Pluto crawled his body around until he looked at Mew again, stopping him by proclaiming "You think just because you won that things will change?! You're never going to earn that woman's love so long as you continue down this road of self-destruction! Gravitus will have your head, he's far beyond us all!"

Mew paused in place and glanced over his shoulder, telling Pluto quietly "…You know, you're right. I've screwed up a lot with Kairi…I should've been honest with her from the very start that there was at least some infatuation on my part. For all my clamoring of wanting a girlfriend, in the end I know nothing about handling them, and it's understandable that I've screwed up a lot because of it. I fully admit my mistakes, and I know it's probably too late to fix what I have done…"

Mew looked away from Pluto and said "But it's still for the best that Kairi never knows how I feel. I can't let that demon harm her just because I make one mistake…And as a flawed human, the risk is too high for me to take chances…I put on a brave face, but every day I curse that demon inside of my head, and the worst part about having him inside of me is that I have no idea when he infiltrated my mind or if there's even any way of expunging him out…"

"Look at me, I'm just rambling on at this point to a madman, so I'm going to tell you something Pluto…" Mew glanced over his shoulder one more time and told him "You had a chance to do so something good with your life even after you lost your people and civilization. That Aurian Sage that visited you gave you a great gift, a power that could've been used to help billions across the universe…But instead you chose to follow a madman in your crusade against another race. If you don't die of blood loss or Gravitus doesn't finish you off, maybe you should reconsider what you should be doing with your powers, Pluto…"

Mew then truly began to go for the portal without letting Pluto interrupt him any longer, even as the madman proclaimed to him "You're never going to find happiness you insolent wretch! No one can stop Gravitus! He's completely beyond us all! If you return to that pyramid, you're dragging the both of you to death's door! DAMN YOU!" His last scream went unheard as Mew has already taken Kairi back through the portal to the Sages' Pyramid. Pluto then collapsed on the ground and let himself slowly fall unconscious.

By the time Mew ended up back at Pluto's chamber in the pyramid, Kairi began to mumble, showing that she was beginning to awaken. As such, Mew laid her down onto the ground before she woke up all the way, making sure to be gentle in the process. Kairi creaked her eyelids open slowly for a few seconds before suddenly widening them all the way, lifting her upper body off the ground quickly while shaking her head back and forth and proclaiming with a ton of energy in her voice "Where is he?! I'm going to take him down with all of my-"

Kairi quickly realized she was back in the pyramid, and she looked up at Mew as he wore a bit of a smile on his face. Kairi quickly pulled herself up on her feet and said "W-What happened while I was knocked out?" Mew didn't feel the need to tell Kairi about the fact that she was chained up since he healed up all the marks on her skin, and thus quickly told her "I defeated Pluto. He's lying in a pool of blood back on his planet, and I don't really know whether he'll live or die from it."

Kairi blinked a couple times before stating "…Well good, I really didn't like that guy." After a few seconds of thinking about everything with her arms folded against her chest, Kairi blinked a few more times and then said to Mew "Wait…Then doesn't that mean all the Planetary Aurians are defeated? That nothing is stopping us from facing Gravitus?" Mew glanced over his shoulder and saw that the portal had moved aside, but before he said anything the entire pyramid rumbled again, this time with a more powerful tremor than before.

Gravitus was making it clear that he knew of Pluto's defeat by displaying his power, and once the man was done Mew firmed his eyes into a serious expression and told Kairi "Yeah…And he's waiting for us." Kairi clenched her right fist and held it forward, stating to Mew with a little stutter in her voice "I-I'm ready to go. We're going to finish him off once and for all!" Mew widened his eyes for a moment upon recognizing the stuttering in Kairi's voice, and he murmured out her name in a concerned manner before turning around to look at her.

But before he said anything more, Mew had to think about what he was going to do. By all means, he should stop ignoring his feelings now and just tell Kairi what he's been wanting to from the start. At the same time though, was it really wise to do it now? Gravitus was just a staircase climb away, and with the power Gravitus was displaying Mew actually worried that he might not be able to defeat the man. Would it be right to tell Kairi of his love and then perish at Gravitus' hands, leaving her without any hope? Mew closed his eyelids and grit his teeth slightly while thinking to himself _"What the hell is wrong with me?"_

He then decided to go for something else and told Kairi "I'm going to face Gravitus myself. You don't have to do anything but watch." Kairi stated in confusion "What? Why? If we work together and attack him quickly, we can prevent him from using the Rite of Singularity!" Mew stated "You're hesitating to fight him Kairi. You've felt his power and got shaken up by it. I really don't think it's a wise idea to get you involved, that's all."

"W-Well it's true that I'm a little worried about fighting him, but I never felt his power before, that's all. You don't need to defend me here, I'll be fine!" Kairi stated confidently, and Mew closed his eyelids and remarked to her "Ok then, I want to ask…Have you decided to choose to fight for all of your people?" Kairi told Mew "It hasn't been that long since we had this discussion, and I was just knocked out for god knows how long. You can't seriously be bringing this up now."

"It's because it's 'now' that I'm doing it. We're a short climb away from facing Gravitus, and you have to decide either to fight for your people or not. Otherwise I'm taking him on alone and stopping you from joining the battle." Mew stated firmly, and Kairi asked him straight up "Why are you even saying this? Just WHAT is your problem?" Mew opened his eyelids and told her calmly "…You think I'd be able to tell you the answer to that?"

"…You know what, forget it. I don't know what the hell triggered this behavior, but I wish you'd just stop and go back to being the nonchalant dumbass you were before. Otherwise, I hope you just get out of my sight after we're done with Gravitus." Kairi said with quiet bluntness, and then she walked past Mew and started climbing up the staircase. Mew looked melancholic once Kairi was out of sight, and as expected of him 'D.' quietly laughs within the confines of Mew's mind, enjoying every second of his suffering at the confliction he has between his love and his desire to hold the demon back. Gritting his teeth as he turned around, Mew murmured "Damn you, 'D.'…" and then climbed up the staircase, since there was no way he was going to leave Kairi to fight Gravitus…

_Next Time: A Cursed Birthright_


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: Gravitus Phase 1: A Generational Influence **

As Mew and Kairi scaled the final staircase in the pyramid, the environment around them slowly shifts to a more cosmic atmosphere, with a black blanket of space being filled by the bright glow of galaxies and stars. This makes the two of them take pause for a moment before they continue up the staircase that was still below their feet, realizing that the space was just an environmental change and nothing else, even if it was pretty to look at. After about thirty seconds of straight forward climbing, the space environment vanished and gave way to the appearance of the final floor in the pyramid.

The room was lit with a bright pearly glow thanks to the glass ceiling above allowing sunlight to come in and radiate off of the pristine walls and statues in the room. Before the two lied a barrier of thick pure aura coming out of the sharp edges of the swords being held by the statues in the room. Suddenly though, the swords began to turn slightly, moving the aura walls away as the dull edge of the blades are placed before them. There was another wall in the way afterwards, but the same process happened until all five of them had parted.

During this process, Mew noticed that that statues all had their faces broken off, but those details were not important when all of the barriers vanished and he saw someone standing at the very end of the room before a large, highly advanced metallic cylinder that had a core of rainbow energy and pulsated a lot of it through the walls of the temple. But at the moment, the person had their backs turned, making it so the only things the two could see was a large green cape with a golden trim and an emblem of unknown origin, and he also had long, untidy black dreadlocks as his hair.

Mew widened his eyes upon looking at the man, who released a pulse of aura from his body that was enough to shake the room. Mew's heart beat heavily and he quietly gulped some saliva, thinking to himself as a bit of sweat crossed down his face _"…This is his power…? I've never felt anything like this before…" _Though Kairi was also feeling pressure from the man's power, she nevertheless thrust her shaking right fist out and proclaimed "W-We've come for you Gravitus! Turn around coward, and face us!"

With a deep, guttural laugh, the man named Gravitus said to the two "…So you've actually made it this far…Such as to be expected of the 'mighty' Elemental Overlord. And I see you've brought along Auris' most recent daughter…Kairi is her name, correct?" Kairi once again proclaimed with some nervousness in her voice "I-I said face us!" Gravitus once again laughed before stating "Hahaha…You are definitely Auris' child…I could recognize that fiery attitude and false bravado anywhere."

The man then shook his head a bit and remarked "This is the first time any of Auris' children have ever made it up to here…But I suppose I have you to thank for that, Elemental Overlord Mew. Thank you for being the perfect delivery service for me." Mew clenched his right fist a bit and remarked to Gravitus while he glared his way "Hmph, the only thing I've come to deliver is your death, Gravitus. So I'm guessing that you were watching our battles as you were coming back to the planet?"

"Hahaha…You presume too much there, both that I can possibly be killed and that I would waste time observing your battles. If you made it here, then I know you defeated everyone from Mercury to Pluto, and any drives Auris' child could have on her don't matter to me as clearly Auris needed your service to get her daughter this far, Elemental Overlord." Gravitus remarked, and Mew asked in a surprised tone "Then how do you know who I am?"

"Now wouldn't you like to know? Lets just say I have my sources and leave it at that." Gravitus stated calmly, and Mew told him bluntly "Lets not." Gravitus responded in kind by telling him cleanly as he laughed a little "You are certainly in no position to demand any information from me, little Overlord. In fact, since you have already done your part in bringing Kairi to me, you may as well just leave now. Quite frankly, you saved me from exerting a bit of effort to get her up here…"

Mew quickly folded his arms together and told Gravitus bluntly "I'm not going anywhere. I told you already that I'm ending your life. Your reign of terror over the Aurians is at an end, Gravitus." After a momentary pause, Gravitus takes a deep breath in and lets it out, telling Mew as he shook his head "An unwise choice…Are you certain you want to throw your life away like that for a race that you have no connection to?" Mew's response was simple but got the point across "I've had enough of that reasoning. I made my decision to stop you long ago, Gravitus, and it's too late to turn back."

"Hahaha…You don't realize how deep of a grave you have dug yourself, Elemental Overlord. Perhaps you need to understand just what you are up against here…" Gravitus said, and all of a sudden he swung his right hand out past his cape, revealing something that looked like a black metal gauntlet with pointed fingertips. But it turns out that the gauntlet is not just the only part of his body that was like this as he turned himself around, revealing that his entire body sans his head was made of this strange metal, with the frame of it being large and muscular in appearance despite it's pointed edges. Most importantly though, Gravitus' head was ingrained so perfectly with the neck of the body that it was clear that this was no suit of armor.

Mew and Kairi both widened their eyes in shock, with Kairi in particular stuttering out "N-No way…All this time…Gravitus was a cyborg?!" Kairi stepped back a couple inches in frightened disgust, and Mew muttered out the words "No way…" under a quiet breath, leading to Gravitus raising one hand to his slightly wrinkled middle-aged face and rubbing his chin as he grinned, telling his two guests calmly "I suppose that is what I am now, but for the last two-thousand or so years I will say that I enjoyed the splendor of having a body of flesh."

Gravitus then held that hand forward and pointed at Mew, telling him quite calmly "But in a certain sense…I have you to thank for letting me take on this robotic body." Mew widened his eyes and said after going back to a firm expression "What the hell are you talking about?" Gravitus flipped his hand around and extended all of his fingers towards Mew while remarking "Well I suppose it's better to say you started the chain of events that led to this moment."

Mew firmed his eyebrows down a little more to show he was getting impatient, and Gravitus could see that and thus quickly mentioned "Hahah…First off, do you remember the battle you had against the new Dark King, Joe Dark?" Mew widened his eyes and remarked while trying to maintain his confidence despite Gravitus mentioning such a detail "Yeah, I do." Gravitus smiled and said "After the devastation you somehow inflicted upon his body, I found him on that asteroid and brought him to my ship, hoping to heal him and bring him to my side much like I did the Planetary Aurians…"

"Tragically, the boy took offense to the offer and responded by crushing my neck, separating my head from the rest of my body. He then made his way out of my ship and vanished to parts unknown…Not long after that, Saturn placed my head atop this body you see before you." As Gravitus pointed at his head at the end of his sentence, Mew proclaimed "That's impossible! How could you possibly have survived having your head removed from your body?"

"It's as I said earlier, little Overlord…I cannot be killed. My body is ageless and deathless." Gravitus stated, followed by Kairi telling him "T-Then you can't use your aura! You need a whole body to channel it!" Gravitus laughed at that remark rather quickly, and then went on to correct ,Kairi by telling her "Is that what you've been led to believe? Poor girl…You couldn't be more wrong. The ability to control one's aura lies in the body, yes…But it's our nervous system that allows us to do so."

Gravitus taps the side of his head, telling the two "So long as the brain functions, we can control our aura, no matter how many of our limbs or body parts we lose. It also helps that this metallic body of mine perfectly replicates the sensory aspects of my flesh one, right down to the last nerve. Saturn's work is truly commendable, and I have never felt more alive than I have in this body." Mew told him afterwards "You aren't going to be thinking that for much longer, Gravitus."

"Such bravado you are posturing at me, little Overlord…But I do not recall such bravado helping your brother Riku defeat me in the slightest." Gravitus remarked rather nonchalantly, but the effects of his words were that Mew's heart skipped a beat rather quickly as he lost his confidence for a moment and remarked "W-What did you just say?" Gravitus told Mew afterwards while rubbing his chin "I said I defeated your brother. It wasn't too long ago that we encountered each other either…"

Mew grit his teeth and gripped his fists tightly, and Gravitus grinned and said "Oh don't get angry at me…Your brother put up a good fight, even if in the end he was nothing more than a guinea pig to test out my new body. He's still alive…But whether he made it off that asteroid after I beat him down is something I care nothing about." Mew raised his right hand up and prepared to summon his sword, but stopped himself midway through because he realized that he was going to let his anger control him if he did that. _"Damn it Riku, how the hell did you encounter this guy?" _Mew nevertheless thought to himself as he lowered his arm.

Clenched his hand around his chin, Gravitus lifted his head up slightly and said "Smart boy…If you are anything close to your brother's level of strength, then you should know already that you cannot defeat me." Mew remarked "Strength isn't everything Gravitus. I have no intention of losing to a brute like you." Gravitus then told him as he waved his hand away from his face "Such young naivety…You must take me for a mindless monster, boy. I know for a fact that strength isn't everything, but you cannot deny that it does help in the long run when you have goals to accomplish."

"And just what IS your endgame in this, Gravitus?" Mew bluntly inquired, and Gravitus laughed a little before telling Mew "I suppose you've earned the right to know my motives before you die. Kairi especially deserves it since she is so intertwined in my plan." Gesturing his right hand out a bit, Gravitus begun to explain to his two guests "Let me start from the beginning…"

"_Long ago, when Sancturia existed on the same planet as the other nine tribes, I was one of the city's citizens. My parents died when I was very young, both of them caught up in a battle between the tribes of Light and Darkness. The Ten Sages took me in as their child in response to my parents' demise, and began to raise me in their ways. In those old days, the Ten Sages acted as the governors/mediators of the tribes. Each sage governed a different tribe, and reported all information to the other nine whenever they gathered for a council."_

"_But the Ten Sages also operated as guardians of the pyramid you stand in now, and they worked to train different Aurians to act as the watch keepers of the Neo Drive so they could focus their efforts more on keeping the ten tribes under their control. After picking me up as their child, they raised me to be one of those watch keepers. I made the role at the age of 15 due to my incredibly intelligence and skill when it came to aura, and at first I was happy to be in that role."_

"_In time though, the constant observance of the Neo Drive began to make me question just who could possibly be worthy of such power. The Ten Sages insisted I never touch the Neo Drive, stating that only those of their bloodline could use it. I couldn't believe they were telling the truth about that, and over the years an anger towards the Ten Sages grew stronger because they continued to hold me back and deny me the chance to go for the Neo Drive. But eventually the Ten Sages perished for trying to force the Dark King to stand down before he went after the Elemental Overlord, and my desire to grab the Neo Drive slowed down after that…"_

"_That is to say, until Sancturia was brought to this Earth. My desire to obtain the Neo Drive came back in full not long after that…But without the Ten Sages, Elemental Overlord or the Dark King around, I made my move towards taking over the Aurians so I could go for the Neo Drive unopposed. I defeated Auris and Aurian Earth in battle and took over as the leader of the Aurians, and then made my move for the Neo Drive's chamber."_

"_But that is where the complications came in…As it turns out, the Ten Sages were right, as I could not open the Neo Drive containment field you see behind me. Only those descended from the Ten Sages could do so, and even then they might not be worth to have the Neo Drive, as evidenced by the fact that Auris could not touch it herself. So I had no choice but to wait for her to bear a child that would be worthy of the Neo Drive. In the mean time, I decided to build a space ship and travel the cosmos, subduing the Planetary Aurians to my side and working to bring peace to other worlds I happened to visit."_

When his story was at an end, Gravitus held both of his hands out and stated to his two guests gently "Does that explain everything to you?" Mew folded his arms together and bluntly told the man "I don't believe for a second that someone like you could possibly have brought twenty worlds years of peace without drawing any blood. And that's it? That's all this is about? You didn't get what you wanted from the Ten Sages, so you decided to subjugate your own people so you could claim the power of the Neo Drive for yourself unopposed?"

"You make my motives sound so simple, little Overlord." Gravitus replied, and Mew told him "That's because they are. Simple…and very petty." Gravitus laughed deeply at that remark, leading to him rubbing his chin again before telling Mew "Then you do not understand the bigger picture here. Tell me…Did Auris tell you what the Neo Drive is capable of?"

"I remember some details, why do you ask?" Mew coldly remarked, and Gravitus went on to explain while continuing to rub his chin "Simply put, the Neo Drive is a Class-X Aurian Drive. But the classification it is giving isn't meant to be a letter…Rather, it's called a Class-X Drive because the 'x' refers to a multiplicative symbol. You see, while all Aurian Drives work to amplify the power of one's aura and give it different properties…The Neo Drive multiplies the base power of an Aurian tenfold. Not only that, but the user can use most other Aurian Drive they have seen and amplify the power of others Aurian Drives."

"T-That's how powerful it is? That's insane…Anyone who wields that would become a god." Kairi said with a bit of freight in her voice, but at the same time felt glad that Gravitus had not acquired it. "Ok fine, so that's your endgame…You want to become a god. Like I haven't seen or heard that motivation a million times before. And what is your 'justification' for the monstrosities you've committed towards your people?" Mew was straight to the point with his words, but Gravitus merely laughed and said "It's all part of the grand plan, really."

Gravitus extended his right hand out and told Mew "All I had to do was subjugate the Aurians was defeat Auris and Aurian Earth. By leaving the rest of the Aurians of the past alone, it led to them and their descendants building up the courage and belief that they could stand up to me. In time, the Planetary Aurians and I would breakdown their hope, and with my appearances here becoming limited to picking up Auris' children they would in time slowly devolve towards blaming her for the inability to stop me years ago. Their despair would increase over time, and now we have reached the point where the Aurians are divided."

"This day shall be the breaking point for the divided Aurians. I will not only obtain the Neo Drive, but also slay the Elemental Overlord that Auris hired to 'defeat' me. The Aurians will have no choice then but to accept my rulership, and they will all willingly come to serve me. And that is when I shall fulfill my goals…" Gravitus then suddenly raised his hands towards the sky and clenched his fists, telling his two guests with excitement clearly present in his voice "I shall use the Neo Drive to amplify the power of every Aurian in the city, and then I will send just one out to each and every planet in the universe and have them do away with all chaos, ensuring that there will be peace throughout the universe!"

Mew and Kairi both widened their eyes a bit in surprise at Gravitus' endgame, with Kairi in particular raising a hand to her chin and stating "This can't be possible!" Mew stepped forward a bit and brandished a pointer finger at Gravitus, stating to him "So that's what all this has been about! You psychologically manipulated your own people to keep them on Sancturia so you could have an army at the ready to conquer the universe once you get the Neo Drive. How could you…?"

Mew grit his teeth in anger for what Gravitus had been doing despite what his endgame was, but Gravitus coyly lowered his arms and shook his head while admitting "You can accuse me of being a monster, but I have lived in this universe long enough…I know how to use what it has to offer to get what I want. And all I want is to do what the Ten Sages, Elemental Overlord and Dark King refused to do, and bring balance to this universe with the power of the Neo Drive."

"You can't be trusted with that power Gravitus, the fact that you'd go as far as to 'subjugate' your own people and manipulate their emotions for your goals shows that the cruelty exists within you. And besides, you keep forgetting one important detail…Only those descended from the Ten Sages can be worthy of the Neo Drive. Kairi has the possibility of using it…You don't, Gravitus. Your ambitions can never come to pass." Mew explains firmly, but Gravitus merely laughs at the idea.

"I've had two-thousand years to ponder over that fact, little Overlord. Do you not understand that? I have figured out a way to bypass that little rule the Ten Sages placed on the Neo Drive, and it involves this body of mine. Saturn did her fair share of research on the Neo Drive with what little information she could use, and found that this type of body is the perfect way to bypass that rule. For you see, in the back of this body of mine is a compartment that is capable of housing a human being."

"Once the Neo Drive attaches itself to the worth owner, I will place them in the back of my metallic body. I will then use the machinery within me to hijack the nerves of their body and make them activate the Neo Drive, which will then cause it's power to flow within me. That is your destiny, Kairi Aurora…" Gravitus extended his right hand out and finished his sentence off with an eerie sounding "Accept it…" Kairi shook her head immediately and exclaimed "I-I'm not going to become a part of you, Gravitus! You're going to die here!"

Kairi then flared up her aura and began to reach for her staff, but Mew quickly moved over and grabbed her arm, stopping her from doing anything stupid by also giving her a quiet glare. Kairi was panting a bit out of anger, and Mew could tell her heart was beating against her chest heavily from the way her pulse felt. Mew then gave her a confident head nod and then turned to Gravitus, holding his right hand out as he stepped in front of Kairi and summoned forth his sword, telling Gravitus then and there "You'd have to get past me first Gravitus, and I'm not going to let that happen."

Gravitus raised a hand to his chin and rubbed it again, laughing a little before remarking to Mew with an intrigued look on his face "You think I am going to force her to accept the Neo Drive? Hahaha…The destiny of all Auris' children has been tied to the Neo Drive from the very beginning, Kairi here will come to accept that in due time and become one with my body once you are out of the way, Elemental Overlord." Gravitus then tilted his head a bit and looked at Kairi, telling her honestly "Your power is quite impressive though…Hahaha, all my years of waiting will have finally paid off, and I will reap the benefits of a mighty host of the Neo Drive soon enough."

"It only makes sense though that you are so strong, Kairi Aurora. After all…What else would you expect to happen when the seed of the mightiest Aurian who has ever lived becomes one with the fertile egg of one of the Ten Sages' descendants? It only took over a hundred attempts, but it was certainly worth it to play the role of a patient father…" Gravitus grinned a bit at the success present before him, but the words he said struck a frighteningly deep cord within Kairi's heart and mind, and Mew also responded with a look of absolute disbelief as his body froze up against it's will in an instant.

Kairi began to step back bit by bit, her face distorted in fright as she murmured out "N-No…T-T-That can't be…You can't be…" Mew immediately tried to defuse the situation by proclaiming "Gravitus! How dare you try and fill Kairi's head with lies!" Gravitus chuckled a bit before telling Mew with the utmost honesty in his voice "There are no lies to be found here, little Overlord. Kairi is my daughter, I can recognize her aura as being a mix of my own and Auris', there is no denying that fact."

Extending his right hand out, Gravitus told the distraught Kairi "Come my daughter…Come and be one with your father, and together we can bring peace to the universe." Kairi was gripping the sides of her head and repeatedly murmuring to herself "You can't be my father…You can't be my father…" She was completely broken up by this, and after Mew glanced back to look at her for a moment he turned to Gravitus and brandished his sword at him while remarking "There's no way in hell Auris would've ever had a child with you!"

"Hahaha…But you forget, she is able to see all possible futures. In the end, having a child with me willingly was the best possible future for her." Gravitus remarked callously while rubbing his chin, and Mew exclaimed "Bullshit! You took advantage of her ability to see the future to get what you wanted. You basically raped her!" After a momentary pause, Gravitus gave Mew a rather vivid grin as he told him "Hahaha…That's what you assume, but at the end of the day you are wrong. At the end of the day all Auris wanted was a child to call her own…Well she got her wish a hundred something fold, just like she so deeply desired. If anything, Auris Aurora should be indebted to me."

Mew immediately went for the white trigger on his sword and pulled it while his eyes widened furiously, leaping straight at Gravitus at the speed of light while his body changed into his Light Form. With katana drawn and pointed down at the man's head, Mew proclaimed "PERISH YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He was just mad enough to avoid grabbing 'D.'s' attention, but Gravitus didn't look at all concerned as he continued to hold onto his chin while lifting his other hand up and focusing his aura towards Mew's body.

In an instant, Mew's body is surrounded by the dark grey aura, and his wings not only compressed against his backside but the rest of his limbs followed suit against his body before he's suddenly slammed against the front of the statue to the left of him. Gravitus casually waved his hand back and forth, guiding Mew's body to slam against the statues in the room multiple times before he decided to bring him down against the floor directly in front of him with a hard impact that nearly broke the ground apart.

The statues remained surprisingly intact, and Mew was just barely able to lift his head up and grit his teeth while Gravitus walked towards him with a joyous grin on his face and said "Did you really think my name is for show, boy? I control the very essence of gravity itself with my aura…" Gravitus lifted his hand up to pull Mew up from the ground so he'd be suspended in place before the man, using his powers to pull Mew's arms and legs apart while remarking "Your brother made the same mistake…You seem to not realize though that your emotions affect your Light Form. All this anger you expend towards me just makes your Light Form much weaker, and thus an even easier target than before for me…"

Gravitus spreads his fingers out and tells Mew calmly "Now then…I'll finish dealing with you in a bit, so just enjoy the view until then." He then released a burst of aura that thrust Mew through the air and place him against the wall above the entrance to the room in the same pose, keeping the effects of his gravity on him so he could not at all act. Kairi watched all of this and broke away from her distress for a moment to turn herself around and exclaim "Mew!" in disbelief that he would be so easily taken out.

"Don't worry about him. He brought this upon himself." Gravitus remarked after chuckling a bit, and he looked at Kairi while she turned herself back around to look at him with complete distraught present on her face. Gravitus extended his right hand out in a reversed pose and said to Kairi "Your champion is incapacitated, my daughter…So why bother resisting any further? Willingly become one with me, and we can do great things for the universe. We'll leave a legacy worthy of the Aurian name."

Kairi quivered as she continued to look at Gravitus, her heart and mind racing as she thought to herself _"How can this be…How can Gravitus be my father? …All this time…All I've been doing is working towards killing my own father…? …But…But Gravitus is a monster…He has to pay for what he's done…But he also so easily took Mew down…Oh god…Oh god…Why? Why? Why? What am I supposed to do now? Somebody…Anybody…" _Kairi quickly drops to her knees and hands, her eyes welling up with tears as she sorrowfully thought to herself _"Help me…"_

"I will free you from your despair. Don't worry Kairi…Daddy's here at long last." Gravitus said in a very forced fatherly tone as he gave Kairi a widened grin, and for a moment it seemed as though Kairi was going to lift her head up and accept her fate. But before that could happen, Mew did his best to defy Gravitus' powers and exclaim "K-Kairi! You can't…give up! Remember what you're fighting for!" He then exerted his powers via firing a small beam of energy from his right eye, making it zip through the air and hit the knot of Kairi's bandana to break it apart.

Kairi flinched as the beam nicked the back of her head, briefly finding herself snapped out of her distress as her bandana slips off of her head and falls down in front of her, making a 'clang' as the metal plate landed against the ground. Kairi gasped a little before moving her hand to flip the bandana around slowly, seeing the kanji for 'hope' on the front of it because of it. Gravitus remarked afterwards "I do not understand why it's so hard to decide this. You are my daughter…Surely ambition boils in your blood. Do you not have ambition to help this chaotic universe? Do you not have the ambition to take your rightful place inside of my body as the wielder of the Neo Drive?"

For most of what Gravitus said, Kairi was focused entirely on the bandana, and she went back to remembering Shina as the reason she wanted to face Gravitus in the first place. "That's right…I came all this way for you sister…" Kairi whispered to herself as she began to reach down for the bandana, grasping the center of it with her hand as hard as she could only to feel something she had never noticed before. There was a lump on the back of the metal plate, and perhaps out of both curiosity and a desire to find comfort…Kairi decided to flip the bandana around and pull on the top of the metal plate to see what was inside.

After a couple seconds, Kairi is able to see a stone attached to the back of the metal plate, one that was buried deep enough into the metal that it made sense that she wouldn't have noticed it while she wore her bandana. Reaching in with a fingernail, Kairi plucks the stone from the plate and lifts it up with her fingers, and upon looking at it a little more she recognizes it as an Aurian Drive, one with a pair of angelic wings on it. Her mouth immediately went agape slightly, for she never could've expected something like this to be within her bandana.

"_Sis…You gave me this Aurian Drive as a gift to go along with my bandana?" _Kairi thought to herself as she kneeled upright, leading to her then resting the Aurian Drive on her palm while her eyes watered a little more, and with her eyelids closed she clenched her fingers around the drive stone and held it close to her heart, thinking to herself _"…You've always been so kind to me Shina, even after you've left…"_

"…_Shina? What would you do in this situation?" _Kairi thinks as she recalls all that Shina was, from her appearance to her personality, coming to a rather important conclusion after a few seconds of thought that makes her widen her eyes upon doing so. _"…She'd lift her head up high and let nothing Gravitus say affect her. She'd smile and fight on…For all of us…" _Kairi then looked up at Gravitus as the man continue to hold his hand out without saying a word, but instead of succumbing back to distress Kairi slanted her eyebrows down and thought to herself _"I'm not like you Shina…I never was, and it's too late for me to strive to as kind-hearted and happy as you were…"_

"_But I'm nothing like Gravitus…He may actually be our father…But he's had no influence on our development as people. He's responsible for our births, but otherwise he's just a monster who has done nothing but hurt u-No…our people! I can't surrender now Shina…It'd be an insult to whatever efforts you've made out there to find a way to stop Gravitus." _As Kairi thought all this, she mustered the strength to stand up, uncurling her fingers from her hand so she could lay the Aurian Drive atop her bracelet without Gravitus noticing at first.

As Kairi clenched her hand around the bracelet and moved them both beside her right hip, she closed her eyelids while Gravitus remarked "So…I assume you've decided to surrender to your fate then?" The man's vivid grin disappeared rather quickly as Kairi said to the man "…I always thought when I was growing up that you should strive to be like the person you admire the most. That's why I tried to be innocent and happy like my sister…I get now that I never really fully got what type of person Shina was, and that when she left I was basically spitting on everything she had ever done by becoming the type of person I was."

"But now I understand her kindness…She never put her own needs ahead of others, she was always thinking of everyone else, especially her younger sister…I could never emulate that kindness, because that's not the type of person I'm supposed to be. I'm not a reflection of my sister, I'm not a reflection of you either Gravitus…I'm Kairi Aurora, I'm my own person." Kairi paused for a moment to take a deep breath and gather her thoughts, while Gravitus lowered his arm a bit and said in a humored tone "You can't possibly be thinking about defying your own father."

Kairi widened her eyes open at that point and exclaimed "You don't have the right to call yourself my father! A father cares for their children and doesn't treat them like tools! Gabriel is my real father, even if he didn't give birth to me! You're nothing more than a monster Gravitus, and for the sake of my sister, my mother, and all of my people, I will defeat you!" Gravitus paused for a moment and then shook his head, but at the same time he reached for his backside with his right hand and pulled out a distorted metallic stick that formed a jagged reaper's blade of light-green aura at Gravitus' command as he looked at Kairi and said "So you're going to do things the hard way then…I've waited two-thousand years so far, I can go another few minutes to discipline you, daughter."

"Sorry, but that's not going to happen! Angel Drive, activate!" Kairi confidently proclaimed as she pressed down on the new Aurian Drive that Shina had hidden away on her bandana. In doing so, Kairi's body sans the head becomes covered in a bright white aura. The aura breaks apart one part of her body at a time, starting by revealing a silver breastplate with a felt strap going around her left shoulder. The breastplate is in front of a silky white long-sleeved dress shirt whose sleeves lead up into ridged triangular gauntlets and grey leather gloves. A long, split, see-through white skirt is wrapped around Kairi's waist and her legs are covered by grey leather pants, with winged armored boots attached to her feet. Freed of the bandana, Kairi lets her hair fall down behind her as the white aura from earlier glows around her body and forms a couple of wings on her backside. Finally, it is revealed that Kairi's irises have become white.

Looking down, Kairi sees that the bandana has also transformed, becoming a silver rapier with the cloth of the bandana wrapped tightly around the nine-inch long handle. A small chain attached to the bottom of the handle and had a miniature metal plate on it with the same kanji for 'hope' on it. Kneeling down, Kairi picked up the rapier in her right hand and smiled for a moment, gliding her left pointer finger across the dull edge of the blade as she stood upright. She then looked at Gravitus and held her blade out, telling him calmly "Now…Lets go!"

_Next Time: Against the Tyrant_


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20: Gravitus Phase 2: Radiance For My People**

"The Angel Drive? Hehehe…So that's where that ended up. And just how did you come to acquire it, daughter?" Gravitus said with an intrigued smirk on his face, and Kairi raised her eyebrows and remarked "My sister put this into the bandana she gave me as a gift!" Gravitus was humored by this and raised his right hand up while telling Kairi "Such a shame that you've never used this Aurian Drive before…You know nothing of what it's capable of."

Gravitus then wrapped his hand in aura and targeted Kairi with his powers of gravity control. Kairi stood still and braced herself on the ground while summoning forth her aura around her body as much as she could. When Gravitus' aura starts to wrap around Kairi's own, it doesn't take long for the man to realize that Kairi is just barely being affected by his powers. He immediately pulls his hand back and gripped his fingers around the handle of his scythe again, remarking to Kairi "Fascinating…So you're strong enough to resist my powers."

Gravitus spins his scythe around and with a grin on his face he said "Fine, if you want to show resistance, then I am fine with just doing things the hard way. This little gift of yours won't save you…My claim of being the strongest Aurian is certainly not hyperbole." Gravitus starts by increasing the thickness of the aura around his body twice over, growling at an increased level of volume until he was at his full power. The very room trembles in Gravitus' presence, with the swords clamped in the hands of the statues bending towards Gravitus' body as he finishes powering up.

Gravitus then wastes little time in swiping his scythe forward to send out a wave of grey aura as wide as the room at Kairi. Kairi raised her rapier up and did one fast swipe of the air to cut cleanly through the center of the wave, making the other halves split off and slice through the front of the statue legs behind her. Gravitus then shows a surprising amount of speed as he gets right in front of Kairi and tries to use the very tip of his scythe to cut into Kairi's aura with a large sweep of his weapon through the air.

Kairi pivots around Gravitus' body without moving her feet once, and with her rapier pointed at the man's back as he lands on the ground she thrusts it forward with it grasped in one hand to try and puncture Gravitus' back. But Gravitus' aura provides heavy resistance against Kairi's rapier, making it so Kairi only punctured a small hole through the aura and didn't touch his body even for a second. Kairi immediately pulls back and watches as Gravitus immediately turns around to try and attack with his scythe again, this time predicting that Kairi would pull her head back to dodge it and extending the reach of his scythe out enough that the blade would nick Kairi's aura.

Kairi feels her aura being pulled away from her body by Gravitus' scythe, and feels a tiny bit weaker because of it. Kairi tries to thrust her rapier into Gravitus' arm while it was swung out, but the man flexed the metal elbow in the way of the attack to block the rapier thrust. However, this time Kairi surprised Gravitus by putting some of her aura into her blade to increase it's strength enough to break through Gravitus' aura and poke a small hole into his armor.

Gravitus grinned in fascination of that move as Kairi pulled the rapier out and leaped back, and as Gravitus swung his scythe back he raised his left hand up and then slammed it right down on the ground. A large shockwave of aura goes out and hits Kairi's legs before she could sprint out of the way, and she's knocked back a few feet and stunned just long enough for Gravitus to get right in front of her and grab her by the face with his left hand. Instead of attacking her though, Gravitus lifts her up and runs forward to the Neo Drive container.

Gravitus slams Kairi against the front of the Neo Drive container, keeping her there for a few seconds while remarking with calm anticipation "Lets see how worthy you are, daughter…" But Kairi puts up a good deal of resistance against Gravitus' efforts by placing her rapier into her belt and grabbing around Gravitus' arm as hard as she could before lifting her legs up and kicking them hard into Gravitus' gut while coating her boots in a thick aura. Not only does her kick create a large shockwave of aura and splits away some of it surrounding Gravitus' body, but it also deals enough force to make him let go of her face as he's pushed back along the ground.

Kairi lands on the ground and draws her rapier, immediately rushing at Gravitus and performing three quick and wide swipes to cut a bit into the front of Gravitus' armor before he covers that part of his body back up with aura. Though he was receiving damage, Gravitus barely flinched and instead nonchalantly remarked "Hmmm…So it seems forcing you against the Neo Drive container is not going to make it react."

Kairi doesn't waste time listening to Gravitus and grabs her rapier in both hands, performing a heavy swing by spinning her body around and coating the blade in aura. Gravitus swings his scythe out to parry the attack, making his body get pushed back some more as a gash of bright white aura is made through the air. Gravitus then lifts his left hand up and gestures towards the left and right of him quickly, pulling on the swords with his gravity powers to make them break off the stone hands holding them in place and move over towards Gravitus.

The two swords levitate besides Gravitus, and with a slight raise of his hand upward Gravitus makes them lift up and point towards Kairi. One sword thrusts forward at Kairi, forcing her to zip past it before it cut her body. But as Kairi bypasses the sword, Gravitus makes it swing around in a circle and causes the tip to cut into Kairi's back a little, which makes her flinch a bit and slows her down enough for Gravitus to thrust the other sword out at Kairi.

Kairi widens her eyes and brings her rapier up, covering it with aura to make it wide enough to block the tip of the blade as it strikes her. Kairi is pushed back a few feet towards the second blade, and as she feels it approaching Kairi leaps back and lets the first blade thrust into the ground while she lands atop dull edge of the second one. Gravitus flips the blade around and tries to make the sharp edge go straight up, knowing that Kairi would react quickly enough to avoid being split in half.

Sure enough, she leaps forward and points her rapier down at Gravitus, dropping down from the sky to before a diagonal thrust at Gravitus' chest. Gravitus steps back a couple feet and watches as the thrust breaks right through the floor with a large blast of aura, just barely nicking the sides of Gravitus' feet in the process. Kairi raised her rapier up and went for two quick slashes at Gravitus' body, but the man held his left hand up and hardened aura around it to protect himself.

He then used his powers to guide the swords back around to try and attack Kairi from behind, but with the aura surrounding the swords Kairi is able to sense their approach and then pivot her body around Gravitus' own to make him pause the swords before they could touch him. He grins a little before turning around to face Kairi, who was attempting another rapier thrust at his back while he had paused. But with a flip of his scythe around to grasp it backhanded Gravitus deflects the attack and finished turning his body around.

He guided his swords around his body and thrust them both at Kairi at the same time, but by this point she was starting to get tired of dealing with them and decided to focus more on destroying them than attacking Gravitus. Gravitus realized that switch in focus though as he paid attention to the way her eyes moved around to look specifically at the swords. So he raised his left hand up and collapsed some of the aura around his body into a sphere before unleashing a powerful blast of gravity at Kairi.

This attack not only breaks apart some of the pillars in the room but also knocks Kairi back a few feet, and she lets out a brief grunt of pain before landing back on her feet and swinging her rapier out to deflect one of the swords that are sent flying right at her. Kairi then leaps into the air and spins the rapier around twice before grabbing the handle with both hands and stabbing it straight down into the center of the sword, piercing through Gravitus' aura and breaking right into the sword, spreading her aura out to crack apart the blade and shatter it apart.

Kairi then lands on the ground and lifts her rapier up in one hand while closing her eyelids, compressing the aura around the blade to increase it's cutting capabilities right as the second blade is sent her way. She holds her rapier up and slices right through the center of the second sword, both halves falling to the ground as Gravitus doesn't see any reason to keep a hold onto them now that they had been rendered useless. However, midway through Kairi cutting down the sword, Gravitus leaped at Kairi and brought his scythe down at her.

But while Kairi was standing still, she was focusing on Gravitus' aura and saw his movements through the darkness of her shut eyes. As such, when the man came down to attack Kairi was quickly able to pivot around him without opening her eyes and use her calculated movements in order to deliver a swift slash to the back of Gravitus' body, cutting right through even his aura and delivering a cut big enough to get through his metal skin and nick the machinery inside.

Gravitus' face visibly flinched in pain at this point, and he quickly retaliated by turning around and swinging his left hand down and up at Kairi's neck to grab onto it and lift her up into the air. Gravitus then turned around and slammed Kairi against the right wall in the staircase leading up the room back first, her aura breaking apart for a moment and allowing Gravitus to let go of her body and use his powers on her.

Gravitus uses his powers to affect Kairi's grasp, forcing her to drop her rapier before he then swung his left arm out to the left as hard as he could to make her fly straight across the room and collide right with the wall beside the Neo Drive's container. Gravitus then lets Kairi drop to the ground as he turns around and starts to walk towards her, using his powers to bend the metal on his back and seal the scar up all the while smirking as he said "Now this is interesting…I suppose I shouldn't take you lightly even though you are but a child."

Swinging his scythe around once, Gravitus increased the length of the blade twice over by gripping the handle tightly and infusing his own aura into it, and then his walk slowly turned into a sprint as he went to grasp the weapon in both hand and bring it above his head while moving towards Kairi. Kairi meanwhile slowly stood herself up and found herself having to work without her rapier for the moment, simultaneously feeling some pain in her right wrist.

Kairi waited until Gravitus got close and then flared her aura up to full strength again, this time pivoting around Gravitus' body in a wide angle as the man quickly goes from a straightforward downward slash to spinning his body around to try and attack Kairi when she goes behind him. But the man just missed attacking Kairi with his scythe as he turned around, and Kairi took advantage of this mistake to rapidly thrust her hands out and send balls of white aura at Gravitus as projectiles.

The projectiles barely maintained a spherical form, and Gravitus held his scythe in front of him with his powers and spun it around to destroy them all while remarking "Your technique in the Projectile Style is lacking…Allow me to show you how it's done, daughter!" After he was done dealing with Kairi's projectiles, Gravitus slammed the top of his scythe against the ground and released the aura within the blade across the ground. The floor was torn apart as the projectile dug it's way towards Kairi without relenting.

Kairi was more focused on getting her rapier back to better defend herself, but she couldn't also just ignore the projectile and thus coated both of her boots in a protective field of aura and began gliding backwards along the floor to go after her weapon. But the projectile proved faster than Kairi did, so she had to kick her right foot along the ground to strike the projectile and hopefully move it away. The projectile did budge to the right a little, but then it just curved right back around at Kairi.

Kairi leaped back over the projectile before it struck her feet, and once she landed on the ground she created a small shockwave of aura to repel the attack backwards as it went around for another round. Gravitus decided to join in and apply more pressure to Kairi by throwing his scythe out and using his power to guide it towards Kairi, but by this point in time Kairi just has to lift her right arm up to use her gauntlet to protect herself.

She moved it up and down to keep the scythe repelled while moving her right foot around to push back the projectile back until she got near her rapier, at which point she uses her left foot to sweep up the rapier and bring it into her left hand. She quickly switches it over to her right hand and uses it to hit Gravitus' scythe as hard as she could, but Gravitus infused some of his aura into the weapon from afar to strengthen it and put Kairi at a standstill for a few seconds. By this point as well Kairi had hit the projectile on the ground enough to dispel it, but it wouldn't be the end of the projectiles as Gravitus would soon demonstrate.

With a casual gesture of his right hand out, Gravitus flung ten spheres of condensed aura at Kairi, making them fly at her from both sides of her body. Kairi summoned forth two barriers of aura on both sides of her body to hold back Gravitus' projectiles, but she was visibly strained by holding everything back. Gravitus leaps across the entire room in an instant and pulls his scythe back towards his grasp and holds it behind him, preparing for a powerful slash as Kairi is left standing still.

Taking quite the risk here, Kairi drops her shields and attempts to pivot away from her location before either Gravitus' attack or the spheres could hit her. She manages to just barely avoid both attacks, with Gravitus cleaving right through his own spheres as he also puts a large gash right through the walls and statues with his slash. Gravitus follows through on the force applied to his attack to turn around and land on his feet, rushing forward to meet Kairi head-on as she grasps her rapier in both hands and prepares for another attack.

An attack that would have to be put on hold as Gravitus swings his scythe around above his head and quickly brings it down towards Kairi, forcing her to leap back and levitate in the air away from the range of Gravitus' scythe. However, Gravitus followed up his mistake by putting a tear into the air before him as he pulled his scythe back, pouring some of his aura into said tear to create a miniature gravitational field that begins rapidly pulling in everything around it so long as Gravitus holds his scythe back.

The debris from the broken swords are the first things to get pulled inside, but eventually the statues get pulled towards the field along with Kairi herself. Kairi increased the intensity of her aura and flew around the pull of the gravity sphere, swinging her sword to send waves of thin crescent aura at Gravitus to try and break his concentration on his aura. But Gravitus lifts his left hand up and moves it around to break apart the attacks with ease, all the while grinning as he puts more aura into the sphere to increase the gravitational pull.

Kairi stopped flying and held herself in place, being slowly pulled closer towards the sphere with each passing second until she realized that she'd get dragged right into it if she gave way for even a moment. The statues were breaking apart around the room, and even the glass ceiling was starting to crack as well. The whole room sans the Neo Drive container was coming apart at the seams from Gravitus' raw power, and upon noticing this Kairi knew she had to launch a strong attack now.

She then realized that instead of resisting the gravitational pull, it'd be better to work with it to attack Gravitus. Holding her rapier in both hands, Kairi placed it behind her body and tightened her grip as best as she could while coating the blade in aura, focusing entirely on Gravitus as the man waited in anticipation for her next move. Kairi waited three seconds before widening her eyes and then charging forth, landing on the ground before Gravitus as the man predicted her move and dropped the gravitational sphere before swiping his scythe right at Kairi's location.

But Kairi surprised Gravitus by ducking down right as he was in the middle of his swing, pulling her rapier out from behind her back and using one hand to perform a mighty slash right at Gravitus' legs. The attack goes through Gravitus' aura and manages to cut through his metal skin right below the kneecaps, putting a large gash into both legs that also cut into some of the machinery behind it. Kairi then stands up and pulls her head back to dodge Gravitus' retaliating scythe swing as she leaps out of his presence, but even with the damage to his legs Gravitus just barely loses stability.

Gravitus held his arms out and said "Heheh…You think you can topple your own father? This body of mine was meant to withstand far greater attacks…And even if you do break through…" Gravitus exerted some more of his aura towards the scars in his legs, pulling the metal together to patch things back up before saying to Kairi with a grin "I'll simply use gravity to pull things back together."

Kairi pointed her rapier at Gravitus and remarked with a confident expression "Then I'll just cut down your entire body." Gravitus chuckled a bit before telling Kairi "Ha…That's certainly an interesting joke. I shall give you credit where it's due though, you are a much better fighter than I expected despite not having mine or Auris' guidance. Who was your teacher?" Kairi proclaimed "I taught myself! And Mew helped me refine some things I was sorely lacking!"

Gravitus lifted a hand up to rub his chin, remarking in a mocking tone "Ah yes, the little Overlord…I had almost forgotten about him." Gravitus then swung his left hand out while turning to look at Mew, who was still suspended above the doorway into the room by Gravitus' powers. Gravitus quickly applied some more gravitational force to Mew's body, putting a deeper crater into the wall while Mew himself grunted in pain and held back Gravitus' powers to the best of his ability.

Kairi widened her eyes upon looking at Mew's condition, and then turned to face Gravitus and with a scowled expression charged at him. But this was just what Gravitus wanted as he brought his left hand forward into a fist and clocked Kairi right in the neck, making her eyes freeze in a widened expression for a few good seconds and choke up air before Gravitus spreads his fingers out to once again grab Kairi by her neck and lift her up. This time however he doesn't try to take her back over to the Neo Drive container and instead slams her down against the ground three times, each impact being felt harder than the last.

Gravitus then pulls Kairi's body from the ground and lets go of her directly in front of him before firing off a blast of gravity that hits her and launches her right into the statue before him while distorting the air. Kairi slams against the front of the statue and causes it's already weakened structure to be broken down and collapse. Kairi pulls herself from the debris quickly and lands on the ground, her clothes torn apart a bit from Gravitus' beat down and some bleeding happening on her right shoulder.

Even so, Kairi takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down, realizing that Gravitus was purposely harming Mew to distract her. Mew could handle Gravitus' powers for a good while, she knew just how stubborn the boy was despite his claims to the contrary, so instead of going for a straight up attack towards Gravitus, Kairi thought of trying something out with this new drive's powers instead. _"If I've gotten the power of light within my aura now…" _Kairi looks around the room, and sees that a couple of the prismatic swords were still intact near the statues.

Kairi lifted her rapier up to cover her smile as she came up with a good idea on how to catch Gravitus by surprise. She ignited her blade with light aura and then slashes forward with one hand to unleash it at the man. Gravitus leaped to the right and swung his scythe back while Kairi's aura stealthily hung inside of the reflective surface of the blade behind Gravitus for later use. Kairi defended herself by holding her rapier up with one hand as Gravitus swung it her way, but the man didn't care that his attack didn't directly connect as he used his scythe's blade to pull some of the aura from around Kairi's body.

Kairi quickly glided to the left and swung her rapier out to match Gravitus' attacks, pulling back the aura around her body so the man would not be able to reap more of it from her, her ability to pick up on that impressing Gravitus as he remarked "Hehehe…Very perceptive…But can you really avoid my scythe for the remainder of our battle?" "I will try!" Kairi proclaimed as she pushed herself back with one hard slash to clash against Gravitus' scythe, the impact releasing sparks of aura through the air while Kairi holds her arm upright and glances at the man, thinking to herself _"Not yet…" _

Gravitus throws his scythe at Kairi, spinning it around and making the blade hit against the front of Kairi's rapier for a few seconds before he runs behind her and thrusts his right fist down at her backside. Kairi avoids the punch while not letting the scythe hit her by bending back and sliding forward, keeping her rapier close to the scythe blade to repel it until she was on the other side of it, at which point she stood upright and turned around, swinging her rapier out twice more to deflect Gravitus' whirling scythe before the man punched down on the blade to reposition it, making it spin upright.

Gravitus holds his right hand out and thrusts out some aura from it to send the spinning scythe forward at Kairi, forcing her to hold her hands out in front of her and keep the rapier lined up before her palms to protect herself from the scythe, continuing to pull her aura back out of reach and stepping backwards as well, hoping to lure Gravitus back to the statue whose sword held her aura. Gravitus strolled forward towards his scythe while Kairi was moving back, and once his arm was within range he perfectly grabbed onto the handle of his scythe and swung it out to the left.

Charging up aura within his scythe, Gravitus grinned while it was covered by his arm and then swung his scythe out with all of his might, unleashing an electrified blast of pure aura before his body that made his cape swing back and shake the very foundation of the temple as the beam rammed right into Kairi's body and knocked her right back into the wall beside the staircase, sending cracks through the wall's structure right as she impacts with it.

The beam grinds against Kairi's body for three seconds before Gravitus lets go of the aura, and Kairi drops into a kneeling position with the front of her chest plate cracked and her pants torn up a bit. "So your aura weathered most of the attack…Heheh…What shall you do now, my daughter?" Gravitus commented on while waving his left fingers out to entice Kairi to attack. Kairi narrows her eyes and thinks to herself while noticing that Gravitus is perfectly lined up with the sword holding her aura _"I'm wiping that smug look off your face, monster!"_

Kairi nods her head slightly enough to make the aura emerge from the sword in a slicing wave, and Gravitus is caught off guard as the attack comes out. Gravitus turns and then leaps back while trying to swing at the aura of light, recognizing that it would be able to go right through his aura and cut his metal skin. After Gravitus used his scythe to counterattack against Kairi's sneak attack, he lands on the ground and begins to turn to attack Kairi for that move, but then he was left in just the right position for Kairi's next attack.

Running straight at the man, Kairi thrusts her brightened rapier forward while grasping it in her right hand, exclaiming as she does so "Radiant Pierce!" Before Gravitus could fight back against Kairi's attack, she thrust the rapier right into the left side of his chest, piercing right through his aura and metal skin with one clean attack. But as the rapier was plunged into Gravitus' chest, the man tried to use his scythe to cut at Kairi's backside, but she unleashed the energy from within her rapier to not only create a radiant burst of light but also thicken the hole in Gravitus' body.

Gravitus is launched across the room from the burst of light, his body slamming against the front of the Neo Drive container with his arms outstretched, but because of the intense durability of the container he quickly peels off of it and lands on his feet. Gravitus quickly leans forward slightly and growls while holding his left hand up to the hole in his chest, and Kairi stands perfectly upright and remarks "Lets see how you fight without that mechanical heart of yours!" After a few seconds, the sound of metal creaking is heard coming from Gravitus' body, and the man chuckles a bit as he lifts himself up and moves his hand away from his chest to reveal that he is sealed the hole back up perfectly, commenting nonchalantly as he holds his hands out "What heart?"

"How do you keep doing that to your body?!" Kairi bluntly inquired, and Gravitus was all too willing to answer by telling her "The metal used to make my body is a thicker variant of the kind Saturn uses in her battle suit. Unfortunately, because of the thickness I am required to use my gravity powers to fix up any holes. But if I went for the regenerative metal Saturn used, it'd be far too easy for my innards to be touched."

Kairi slanted her eyebrows a bit and glared at Gravitus while cautiously holding onto her rapier, and after a little more laughter Gravitus remarked "I bet you're wondering what to do next…'If Gravitus does not have a heart, then perhaps I should attack his head?' Heheh…It's no use to try that, daughter. It's as I told you…I am immortal. I cannot be slain by any in this universe." Gravitus then made a point of resting his left hand where he just sealed up his body and remarking with a smile on his face "All this body needs is the machinery necessary to replicate the nervous system of my flesh body so I can produce aura, and because of the fine work Saturn put into it breaking through a large chunk of the machinery is not enough to shut me down."

Gravitus then looks at Kairi's expression and senses the worry building up within her, remarking to her all the same time "Of course, total disintegration of my body could impede me somewhat…But if you think you are capable of doing such a task, then go right ahead and try. However, I personally am not going to risk such a possibility…Before I make my next move however, there's something I wish to ask you, oh daughter of mine. Do you really want to go down in history as a rebel who was forced to become one with her father to bring peace to the greater universe? If you join me sure your body would eventually decay from old age, but your legacy would be immortalized as a willing girl who did the right thing to ensure peace across the universe."

"There's no benefit to joining you. If I am to be remembered as anything, it'll be as the person who finally put an end to your reign of terror." Kairi replied without wavering with her words, and Gravitus rubs his chin while telling her "Such trite words…Tell me, did you come up with that motivation on your own, or did the little Overlord influence you to say such a thing? Hehehe, you'd be wise to not listen to the words of a child who inherited the legacy of a failure."

"When are you going to get it, Gravitus? I'm not going to be dissuaded from trying to stop you. Nothing you say can justify the pain and suffering you've caused your own people, especially my mother!" Kairi exclaimed, and at that point Gravitus just closed his eyes and smirked a bit. After a little bit of slow, callous laughter Gravitus remarked "It's always said that the one who writes history are the ones who win…It could also be said that those very winners earn the right to justify the means they take to write history."

Gravitus suddenly switches his scythe over to his left hand and drops his use of gravity on Mew's body, making the boy drop from the wall and land on the ground beside Kairi, looking not too bad all things considered. Gravitus then held his right arm up beside his body, pointing the back of it out as he remarks to the two "I could continue this battle in my current state and likely win, but I'd rather not have to waste time getting this body of mine repaired in the process. It was quite fun to spar with you, dear daughter of mine…"

A part of Gravitus' arm flips around, revealing an Aurian Drive with a black and purple twisted expanse meant to look like a standard galaxy, and with an ecstatic widening of his eyes Gravitus' coldly states while moving his left fingers towards the stone "But playtime is long over now. Space Drive…ACTIVATE!" Gravitus taps the Aurian Drive, and as Kairi widens her eyes in shock Mew remarks calmly "…Gravitus…Had a second Aurian Drive this whole time?"

As the very foundation of the pyramid starts to tremble and crack, Gravitus' aura switches to a pitch black color with twinkles of white to represent stars. Gravitus stretched his arms out on both sides of his body and proclaimed "Feel honored, little Overlord! For after your brother, you and my daughter are only the third and fourth to witness the power of this Aurian Drive!" The glass ceiling shatters right away, with the broken shards flying away from the roof of the pyramid as Gravitus exerts his power through sky warping shockwaves, laughing all the while. The statues in the room are torn apart easily, leaving nothing but dust in their place once Gravitus was done.

Gravitus' presence affected the very atmosphere of the planet, turning the skies grey with thunderclouds when it was perfectly sunny just moments ago. When Gravitus was fully powered up with this Aurian Drive of his, he gripped his scythe tightly in his right hand and ignited the blade with shining white aura, swinging his arm back out and watching as Kairi quickly looked frightened by the display of power Gravitus was showing, while Mew was barely reacting save for a slight scoff.

The grip on Kairi's rapier began to falter, but Mew raised his right arm up without showing a hint of fear to calm her down. Gravitus then looked at Mew and said to him "Hahaha…You are doing well to hide your fear, little Overlord. Did you not want me dead not too long ago? Why don't you show me your anger again and see how well that works out for you?" Gravitus was clearly taunting Mew, and Mew stood himself upright and laid a hand close to the handle of his now sheathed katana and said "Just because you had that trick up your sleeve doesn't mean I have a reason to worry yet."

Gravitus remarked afterwards while displaying the madness in his eyes "Trick? This is no mere trick, boy! The very depths of space are now mine to control at my beck and call. Any dimension of space I have seen and memorized I can control from anywhere if need be! The atmospheres of any world are but playthings to my hands and fingers! Do you not understand just what kind of power you are up against here?!"

Mew nodded his head without hesitation, leading Kairi to look at Mew and think to herself while she was in the middle of worrying her head off _"How can Mew be so calm? Gravitus is much, MUCH stronger than he was before…Oh god…What are we going to do now?!" _Gravitus grinned at Mew's defiance, and said while extending his left hand out "It seems you need another demonstration of my power, little Overlord. So I shall give you my ultimatum…"

Gravitus starts to levitate off the ground, his arms spread out as he mentions to the two below him "You have two minutes! Decide which of you shall be the first to fall by my power!" Gravitus goes out of the pyramid in a matter of seconds, levitating away out of sight for the time being while Mew and Kairi are left in the room to think things over. Kairi collapses to her knees while gripping the handle of her rapier tightly, looking up to the sky while remarking in a worried tone as her expression as nearly blank "W-Why…? How can Gravitus still have this much power at his disposal? …And how can you be so calm, Mew?" Kairi's inquiry was done as she turned her head to look at Mew, who simply had his arms folded and appeared to be deep in thought.

"…Kairi, I'm going to be doing you a favor here. I'm going to fight Gravitus." Mew said without hesitation, and Kairi immediately lifted herself up and with widened eyes proclaimed "W-What the hell?! You can't be serious! Why do you think you stand a chance of defeating him?!" Mew closed his eyelids and remarked with the utmost seriousness in his voice "I don't think I have a chance, yeah…But that's not my point. My plan here is to fight Gravitus for a bit, and then once he defeats me you'll have seen enough of the battle to get an idea on how his powers operate. Then you can finish the job."

In the face of Mew's plan, Kairi immediately exclaimed "Bullshit! Gravitus is going to kill you! Then he's going to defeat me and make me become one with the Neo Drive so he go through with his wretched plan! We're both possibly at the end of our lives and you want to hinge everything on luck?! Why?! Why would you-" Mew suddenly turns at Kairi and lifts one hand up, putting a pointer finger against her lips to instantly silence her due to how sudden the move was. Giving her a genuine smile, Mew said to her "My luck's never been that good in the first place, honestly. If I can put that bad luck to good use, then can't you just let me do that this one time, Kairi?"

After a few seconds of looking Mew in the eyes, Kairi grabs onto Mew's hand and pushes it away from her lips, remarking to him in a bitter tone "Idiot…You can at least look scared for once instead of taking this nonchalantly." Mew responded to that by calmly stating "Kairi…We're going to make it through this. Just have faith in me." Mew then budged his hand out of Kairi's grasp and nodded once, slowly levitating himself off the ground as Kairi watches him go off to face Gravitus. Before he was out of the room and thunder began to strike down across the skies, Kairi muttered "I-I can't lose another person close to me…Please come back safely, you idiot…"

Mew floats in the sky and closes his eyelids, taking a deep breath to relax his jittering nerves while he draws his katana from his hilt and looks forth at Gravitus, whose body was exuding with nothing but the space-warping raw power of his aura. The man was grinning from cheek to cheek, and he stated to Mew "So…You chose to sacrifice yourself first then? A foolish but fitting gesture for the little Overlord…" Gravitus draws his scythe forward at Mew to exert just enough power to push Mew back where he was without any of his aura spilling forth, but Mew just remains focused on the battle before him and thinks to himself _"Alright Mew…Time to put your plan into action…Otherwise you really will be the idiot Kairi claims you are."_

_Next Time: How Far I Will Go_


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21: Gravitus Phase 3: The 'D.'esperation I'll Pursue**

"_The sky is bathed in thunderclouds…I'm staring into the face of a man who far outclasses me…And the fate of the universe rests on my crazy plan to work. Just need some memories of my life flashing before my eyes and the clichés are complete…" _Mew thought to himself as he grasped his katana in both hands and faces down Gravitus, who calmly floated in the air with his space-like aura surrounding every inch of his body and his scythe grasped in his right hand. "What are you waiting for, little Overlord? Come and fight me. I will not need to move from his spot." Gravitus claimed confidently.

"_Yeah…I don't doubt that…" _Mew thought to himself before he gripped his sword tighter and then took off at light speed, appearing behind Gravitus and attempting to swing his sword as hard as he could, but the man reacted beyond the speed of light by moving his scythe behind his back and blocking Mew's attack with casual ease. The sword unleashed a swathe of blinding light, but it didn't even make Gravitus' aura budge an inch. Mew was surprised by how fast Gravitus was now, as he didn't even see the man move his arm.

Mew widens his eyes and grits his teeth while speeding off again to get right in front of Gravitus, attempting the same attack again but with a vertically angled slash. But once again Gravitus blocks the attack with his scythe without so much as budging his body. However, the two swathes of light connected together and exploded upon Gravbitus' body in a bright cross-shaped blast that consumed the man entirely, and Mew leaps back while watching the light fade away from his attack.

Gravitus stood there completely unharmed, and his aura had been disturbed just a little bit. Gravitus lifted his left hand up and brushed his shoulder, remarking to Mew with a humored tone in his voice "Cute…I bet you thought I'd burn if you attacked me with a cross." Mew narrowed his eyebrows and said "I wasn't aiming for that type of plan." Gravitus then looked around and saw the light spread out from Mew's last attack converting into a bunch of needles that fly straight down at Gravitus' aura.

Gravitus once more doesn't budge an inch and lets the needles crash and break against his aura all at once, leading to Mew then thrusting his katana forward and unleashed a huge beam of light at Gravitus from the glowing blade. Gravitus lifts his hand up and catches the beam of light, using his aura to collapse it all down with gravity into the shape of a sphere as though it was nothing to him, leading to the light all being clenched around his fingers, but it lasts but two seconds before Gravitus crushes it all.

He then lowers his hand beside his body and creates five spheres from distortions in the fabric of space, all of them being as large as his body and every one containing a distorted variation of his aura. All these were made without Gravitus having to even gesture a finger out from where they were, showing the strength of his Aurian Drive in all of it's frightening glory. Gravitus sends all five spheres at Mew while grinning, and Mew quickly has to raise his katana up and utilize nearly all of his strength to cut one of them down in a blinding swathe of light.

He then folds his wings beside his body and creates a spherical barrier of light to prevent two more of the spheres from hitting him directly, but the spheres just casually swallow the barrier into their beings as though they were miniature black holes. Mew's wings are then pulled towards the black spheres against his will, the bones within cracking to Mew's displeasure, culminating in him letting go of his concentration on them just to avoid any unnecessary pain. The two spheres then vanish after breaking Mew's wings with their gravitational pull, and Mew concentrates another powerful sword slash in order to destroy one sphere that was flying right at him.

But the last one managed to slip on by unnoticed by warping through space, reappearing itself behind Mew and ramming itself directly against his body as Mew had but one second to glance over his shoulder and notice it. The sphere consumes Mew's body and starts making him bear the full weight of it's gravitational might, which surpassed even the pull of Jupiter and Saturn combined. Mew felt his own bones start to give way to the power of the sphere, with his blood veins popping apart and pores in his skin opening so blood could spray out from those broken veins. He pooled all his efforts into keeping his head and heart from being affected, at the cost of the rest of his body suffering for it.

Eventually, Mew tired of the sphere's effects and increased his strength to 100% while yelling at the top of his lungs, unleashing a burst of light powerful enough to shatter the sphere entirely and spread radiance across the sky. But the effects of Gravitus' sphere could not be ignored, as Mew's arms and lower legs were drenched in blood, with any armor related to either parts of his body cracked open with relative ease. Mew panted a bit but still held his hands on his katana while looking at Gravitus.

"Look at you…The foolish, bleeding messiah of the Aurians…Running on whatever energy you have left and for what? To stop my efforts at peace? Such is the folly of the Elemental Overlord and his legacy, to not understand when to give up even when they have no reason to fight." Gravitus remarked in a relentlessly mocking manner, and Mew just stays silent for a few seconds to catch his breath before saying "I do have something to fight for…"

Gravitus grins a bit and rubs his chin with his free hand, and after a few seconds of thought the man slowly widened his eyes in realization and remarked in a drawn out manner "Ooooh…Now I get it. The past repeats itself again, but now it's my daughter who is being targeted for love…" Mew widened his eyes, and Gravitus held his left hand out and used his powers to immediately grab Mew's body with his power of gravity and pull the boy right over to him.

Gravitus then grabs Mew by his neck before the boy could get a chance to swing his sword, putting a tight enough grip around the neck so he wouldn't even be able to budge the sword if he wanted to. Gravitus then holds Mew up as high as he could and looks straight into his face with the eyes of madness present on his voice, remarking after a chuckle "Poor, naïve boy…As her father, I do not approve of your desire to mix your genes with Kairi's. Of all the laws the Ten Sages passed, I only ever agreed with the fact that the Aurians and the element tribes should never breed."

Gravitus widens his grin a little more and pierces the skin of Mew's neck with his pointed fingers, telling Mew as he starts to crush his esophagus while he gasps in pain "The future only belongs to those pure of blood in the Aurian race. It was your mistake to assume that your efforts would ever be successful, little Overlord." With a bit of a shrug from his shoulders and a mere shake of his head, Gravitus then remarked "But now you've wasted your time. This is how your short history comes to an end…Used as an example and nothing more."

With one last flex of his metallic muscles, Gravitus unleashed a burst of gravity through Mew's entire body, making his nerves erupt into a torrent of pain and anguish as blood gushes from his limbs and mouth, and he was unable to make even a single sound because of those factors. Gravitus then let go of Mew's neck and let gravity take it's course, sending the boy plummeting straight down back into the Sages' Pyramid, where he crashes against the top floor with enough force to break through. But his body does not stop there, as he crashes through the remainder of the pyramid and slams hard against the bottom floor, his body exuding blood all the while and bathing his pure looking body in the impurity of his crimson blood.

Kairi, barely understanding what happened as she watched the battle unfold from the top floor, exclaimed in shock and fear as she turns to look at the hole Mew was sent through "No! NO!" But before she could run towards the hole, Gravitus uses his powers to grab Kairi and suspend her in her distraught pose right down to the last muscle before lifting her up from the ground and bringing her out of the pyramid, turning her around so she could face him before he let go of her. Kairi, with her rapier still grasped, listened as Gravitus extended his left hand out and grinned, saying to his own daughter calmly "Now…You are welcome to try and fight me again, just know that I still require your body for the Neo Drive to accept you, so don't push yourself to the point of breaking, daughter."

Kairi's mind was racing from how quickly everything was happening and her eyes twitched a bit in anger before she held her rapier before her and exclaimed "You just keeping taking everything away from us! How dare you! You'll pay…YOU'LL PAY!" That was the best she could say in these circumstances before she charged right at Gravitus, who held his scythe behind his back and extended his left hand in front of his face while setting his aura ablaze with electricity, grinning all the while.

But as Kairi and Gravitus were about ready to fight again, something was happening down at the bottom floor of the pyramid. However, it's not what you think was happening at this moment. Mew's body remained motionless and bloody on the ground, not even budging an inch in the slightest. He had returned to his basic form, letting his shirt soak up blood with each passing second. But it was not the body that we should be focusing on at this moment…No, the activities in question that are important to follow are occurring deep within Mew's subconscious…

Within the black void that consisted of Mew's subconscious, a mental representation of his body laid on the 'ground'. He laid in the same pose as he did in the outside world, but without any of the blood and such being dragged in with him. Within this realm of the subconscious, a figure stirred, moving itself slowly towards Mew's body as it's footsteps echoed with every motion. Once the figure stood beside Mew, it kicked him right in the side of his body with all of it's might, remarking in an enjoying but raspy tone "You really think you can fool me with this unconsciousness act?"

Mew's subconscious form grunted in pain as he bounces across the 'ground', landing on his stomach once the act was done. But he quickly opened his eyelids and turned his head to look at the figure in question, pushing himself off the ground with both his hands as he remarked "Heh…Should've known that I wouldn't fool you. But that's not why I did this, 'D.'…" As Mew stands upright within his own mind, he looks at the being in question that he spoke to, and finds that 'D.' has taken one a different form than the mass of darkness he saw before.

Now 'D.' was beginning to copy Mew's body, having his main body, legs and arms and half of Mew's head replicated perfectly around himself. The hands and feet were made of pure black flames, and the upper half of the head was a mesh of dark black merged with the 'flesh' he created while his hair was made of black flames and his eyes were demonically yellow with reddish pupils. Mew remarked nonchalantly as he brushed his shoulders off "I see you're getting used to being in my body."

'D.' creaked out a rather intrigued grin made of bloody fangs before he spoke through them "Hehe…You know it's only a matter of time before I am a perfect copy of you. So…have you come to take one last trip down memory lane before I take over your body for good?" Mew shook his head a bit, taking 'D.' by surprise as Mew told him bluntly "I made it clear that you're never going to have my body, and I'm sticking to that. I don't think you seem to understand that I have intentionally chosen to force this meeting between us."

"Fascinating…And just what could be the point of this?" 'D.' inquired with the utmost intrigue in his voice, and Mew brandishes his right pointer finger at the demon within his subconscious and told him "You're going to willingly let me use your powers of darkness." The bluntness of Mew's demand completely surprised 'D.', but his shocked expression quickly returned to the joyous grin he's most known for having as he began to cackle merrily at such bold words before telling Mew after a raspy squeal of delight "Oh that is absolutely rich. You sit on your death throes, your life fading away with each passing second. Bringing yourself into your subconscious is delaying that inevitability, yes, but what makes you think that I would ever give in to your demand, human?"

"You know you can't live without me. If I die, you go with me." Mew pointed out, but in somewhat defiance of that logic 'D.' rubs his chin and remarks "Yes…It's true that in my current, ethereal state I cannot survive without latching to the subconscious of a host body…" He then grinned and said "But you also forget that the closer you get to death, the weaker your subconscious becomes, and thus the easier it gets for me to take you over."

"You think I didn't consider that? But what good is it to attempt demonic possession when the body doesn't exist anymore?" Mew stated, and at that point 'D.' perked his eyes up and remarked "Wait…Are you seriously suggesting…?" Mew nodded his head to stop the demon from talking, going on to say himself with full confidence and seriousness in his words "I have enough energy left out there to blow my body up. I'd rather let Gravitus get his way than allow you to have control over my body."

'D.' paused for a moment, blinking his 'eyelids' twice before breaking into abrupt but prolonged laughter that echoed within the confines of Mew's mind, much to the boy's dismay as he grimaced a bit in annoyance. Once the demon was done laughing, he said to Mew while crossing one leg atop the other and levitating slightly off the ground "Bravo…Bravo…None of my hosts have ever gone as far as to threaten to kill themselves in order to put an end to me…However!" 'D.' suddenly narrowed his eyebrows and glared at Mew, lifting a hand up from atop his leg to point at Mew and state bluntly "I know you aren't going to go through it."

"Do you really want to take that risk right now D?" Mew firmly remarked while laying a hand against his chest and ignite the palm with flames, and the demon grinned and merrily said while holding his arms out a shrugging his shoulders "Go right ahead, but you and I both know what you are really after here. And that's what humors me the most about this whole situation." Mew didn't respond to that and kept his confident glare towards the demon as it said to him while barely containing his laughter "Never in a thousand upon a thousand years would I have ever guessed that your desperation for love would bring you this far, Mew."

Crossing his arms, 'D.' said afterwards while leaning his head forward and widening his grin to an unnatural degree "You'd risk the possibility of death just to visit me, hoping that the being whose existence borders close to that of the devil himself would simply accept your request and give you the power of darkness to help you defeat Gravitus? Do I have the gist of what you are going for here, or is there something I'm forgetting?"

Mew raised his voice at this point, lifting his head up high and exclaiming "I can't expect a demon to understand my emotions at this moment. I am angry, so incredibly angry at everything Gravitus has done and wants to do, but I've been keeping that anger held back as close as I can to the limit to prevent any of those remaining barriers from breaking to my deepest subconscious. And it's not just anger towards Gravitus I have. I hate YOU with every fiber of my being, demon!"

"Oh, do tell…do tell…" 'D.' nonchalantly urged, leading to Mew brandishing his other finger out and exclaiming "You've infested my mind for the last two years, your constant presence preventing me from getting close to anyone out of fear that I would someday lose control of my emotions and bring you out, which would then lead to their deaths! And the worst part of it all is that I can't for the life of me remember just how the hell you even got into my mind in the first place! I've been holding back all of this anger against you, but now that we're both in my mind there's no way I'll let my emotions destroy the remaining barriers, and that's why I'm not afraid to tell you everything, demon!"

Mew stamps one foot forward and widens his eyes before stating "I want to have more friends! I want to love! I want to be able to rage with all of my might without having to have some monster decide how I should act! Look into my eyes, 'D.', and you'll see just how genuine my anger is! You want to feed on this anger, then fine, do it! Go ahead and test the rage of a desperate man, and let it be the last moment of your callous existence!"

For once in his life, 'D.' was actually left relatively speechless at Mew's anger, but it didn't take long for him to curl his lips into a cheshire's smile and laugh some more, clapping his hands together out of genuine praise beside his head before he stated "I must admit…This has been by far and beyond one of the most entertaining moments in my life. As a demon who has existed since close to the dawn of time itself, that is quite the accomplishment. Alright then…" As the demon moves his hands away, a panting Mew remarked "So you're going to listen after all?"

"Ah ah ah…Lets not get ahead of ourselves here. I admit, I am very tempted to allow you the chance to use my darkness against that bold man Gravitus…But at the same time, dealing with demons is always supposed to come with a price." 'D.' said, unfurling his arms and remarking as he pointed to Mew's body and grinned "Draw your sword, Mew. Face me here and now…While time slowly to a crawl within your subconscious, you still have enough time to battle and very, very possibly best me…Or at the least impress me the rest of the way. "

Mew swings his right arm out and summons his sword into his hand after a heavy blaze of fire emerges, remarking afterwards with a determined expression "I have nothing to lose here! Come at me with everything you've got, demon, and I'll fell all of your doubts!" Mew then pulls the white trigger and switches into his Light Form, with 'D.' cackling a bit before summoning two more arms from his body and exclaiming "Make peace with your gods, for even they won't be safe once I have taken you over, boy!"

"Not a chance!" Mew says, swinging his sword up and sending forth a wave of light across the ground that travels towards 'D.' and then rises up into a wave of gushing light, but 'D.' slashes forth two of his darkened hands to create crescent blades of dark wind that cut through the light, splitting it apart enough to create a gap that he is able to slip through. But before the demon charged at Mew the boy pulled back on his sword to drag the remaining light backwards at him. The light washes over 'D.', but the demon creates a barrier of black flames to take the brunt of the attack for him.

Mew leaps off the ground and tries to cut 'D.' with his glowing katana, but the demon brought two hands out and created dark replicas of the sword Mew wields in his basic form, using them to parry Mew's attacks while making two of the other arms create spheres of bright black and red electricity. Mew steps back and moves his head to the right as the demon fires one of the spheres his way, but the other one is thrown right at his armored chest, causing the electricity to erupt into a diagonal X-shape before knocking Mew back onto the ground.

But Mew just slams his elbows against the ground and uses that to flip himself onto his feet, pointing his katana at the demon without breaking his stride before he remarked "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you've picked up on using my elemental powers." 'D.' grinned as he created four fireballs in all of his hands, replying to Mew's observation with "I observed the original Elemental Overlord well enough and learned how to control the elements because of that. Seeing how your mind is a fertile ground for elemental energy to be born, it's quite easy for me to keep using these type of attacks against you."

"And yet that doesn't concern me at all. How else can I hope to face her again unless I learn to surpass myself?" Mew remarked nonchalantly, this time ignited his katana with light and grasping it in both of his hands before swinging it over his right shoulder, keeping a defensive stance with feet spread apart while 'D.' holds all of his arms together and merges the four spheres of black flame into a singular orb, unleashing it all into a gargantuan beam of fire that roars through the atmosphere of the mind.

Mew presses forth against the ground, charging up into the air while blanketing the front of his body in a shell of white light, allowing him to push against the front of the black flames and put up a great deal of resistance against it for a few seconds until 'D.' applies more flames into the beam to increase it's size and power. Mew starts to get pushed back towards the ground, but he had figured this was going to happen and had prepared appropriately. Bringing his sword out from over his shoulder, Mew slashes hard against the beam of dark flames, sending forth a large wave of light that burns through the center of the beam and goes straight for 'D.'

'D.' cuts off his connection to the flames and moves to the right, but not before the light cuts through his left arms and burns them right off. 'D.' doesn't even grimace though from losing his arms, instead feeling a bit of pain from the light Mew sent his way as he remarked with an intrigued tone "Hehehe…So you can harm me with light. I suppose I haven't regained enough of my form yet to be able to do something about that." Mew lands on the ground and sheathes his katana before swinging his right hand out and sending a large wave of light out in the form of a whip, remarking bluntly as he does so "Good! Then I'll take advantage of it however I can!"

Regrowing his two lost arms, 'D.' swings them both across the front of his body and grabs onto the side of Mew's whip of light as it comes towards him, letting his hands burn to the touch as he grins and remarks "Don't get the wrong idea child…It is never that simple." At the cost of his reformed hands, the demon crushes the whip of light into nothingness from the point that he was touching it at, followed by him swinging one hand under his left arms and sending forth a blast of black frost from his palm at Mew.

The black frost strikes Mew's right angel wing and instantly freezes it over, dragging it down to the ground and pinning it in place as the crackles of it's being echo through the mind. Mew was left a little off-balance from that move, and he had to use his sword as a stand to keep himself from falling down all the way while he exerts energy on his right wing to break through the ice. 'D.' doesn't wait for Mew to break free though, and immediately flies above him and lashes all of his arms down at his body.

The arms turn into claws and slash away at Mew's armor, tearing it apart bits at a time but never once getting close to his skin. Even so, it hurt Mew's ears as the claws screeched against his armor like nails to a chalkboard, but in the time 'D.' spent attacking Mew was able to shatter the ice from his wing and swing it upward to send bright feathers at the demon. 'D.' flew to the right to avoid the brunt of the attack, though some of the feathers pinned themselves to his right left arms and blew up to take them out.

Mew then positioned himself upright and grabs onto his katana before zipping right up to the demon, hoping to cut down his other arms as well. 'D.' uses the two arms on the right side of his body to create flaming swords while slanted sideways in mid-air, letting the attack Mew swings at him connect against his blades to push himself back and put some distance away so he could have some time to regenerate his left arms.

But Mew had already readied himself to apply more pressure to 'D.'s' body, moving swiftly behind the demon and stabbing his katana right into 'D.'s' gut as the demon turned around to try and defend himself. But while the light from Mew's katana burned a hole into 'D.'s' body, the demon took one of his swords and performed a retaliatory stab into Mew's left shoulder. But this only made Mew grimace a bit, and he twisted his katana deeper into the demon's body and unleashed a beam of light to tear away his entire midsection and launch the remains down towards the ground.

The demon's body crashed against the ground, split up into his arms, legs and head because of Mew's efforts. But this just brought a smile to 'D.'s' face as he slowly reformed his body and remarked "So even as a warrior of that accursed light, you have the ruthlessness of a warrior of darkness." Mew dropped to the ground behind the demon as it stood upright, holding his katana out directly atop the demon's left shoulder while exclaiming "I've had a lot of pent up aggression to get out on you, that's why!"

'D.' grinned widely, stating with intrigue in his voice "Good…But…" before suddenly warping through the darkness of Mew's mind and hovering high above him, planting two hands flat down to create a dark violet six-pointed magic seal that shakes the very foundation of Mew's mind as it glows brightly. While 'D.' held two hands against the demonic center of the seal, he raises the other two up and creates two large red and black meteors that burned with the most hellish violet flames.

With the eyes of madness on the demon's face, he exclaimed down to Mew "Do you have what it takes to do what the original Elemental Overlord couldn't?! To accept the demonic side of humanity within yourself and forego all selflessness for the sake of a single Aurian girl?!" The demon then slams both large meteors against the magic seal he created, making them pass through the center of it and multiply into dozens of other meteors that fly down in a broad range towards Mew, all the while 'D.' exclaimed "Perish Meteor!"

But as the meteors dropped from the sky towards Mew, the boy just held his katana behind his back and leaped bravely towards the meteors, pulling his katana out to swing it at one of the meteors while bathing the air with swathes of blinding light from how rapidly he was slashing forth. He cut down the meteors and dispelled the darkness surrounding them, proceeding up towards 'D.' as the demon tried to apply more pressure to Mew by adding dark lightning to the mix through the magic seal, creating large bursts of multiple electric streams through the air with every time he slams a hand against the center of the seal.

Mew keeps cutting down the meteors in his way while braking every now and then to put up shields for defense against the electricity before continuing onward without any further pause. Along the way he states to the demon boldly "I've already accepted how selfish I am! But that doesn't mean I'll turn evil like you or the former Dark King! If I didn't have the capacity for good, then why would I have the ability to control the power of light?! To forego what selflessness I have is to betray this power and all it stands for!"

"But it's not enough! You know it's not enough! I want you to admit it to me, Elemental Overlord! Scream that anguished desire at the top of your lungs!" 'D.' exclaimed as Mew was inches away from breaking through his magic seal, and with his eyes widened with determined fury Mew held his right hand out and ignited it with bright white flames before exclaiming "I NEED THE POWER OF DARKNESS TO SAVE THE ONE I WANT TO LOVE! NOW HAND IT OVER YOU GODDAMN PARASITE!"

Mew punched right through the magic seal with his white flames spreading out through the pieces and brightening the confines of his own mind, and as he levitated before the demon for just a moment 'D.' grinned and quietly laughed before Mew grabbed the front of his face and started dragging the demon towards the ground, releasing pounding shockwaves of bright white flames while yelling at an accelerated increase of volume until he slammed the demon against the ground and erupted forth a pillar of flames from his hand. Once the flames had faded away, Mew can be seen standing triumphant over 'D.', whose body save for his head was burned away for the moment, and Mew had his katana pointed at the demon's forehead.

Panting a bit, Mew enjoys his triumph before sheathing his katana and letting the demon reform his body, and by the time his hands came back he was already beginning to clap them together slowly while grinning in delight. While slinking his body off of the ground to stand upright, 'D.' remarked "Hahaha…Very well then, Elemental Overlord, I'll let you use my darkness. In fact, for once in my life I'll even cut you a bit of a deal…You can go unrestrained against Gravitus, use whatever anger you have welled up inside of you against him. Show him the true ferocity of a demon if you so wish."

Mew folded his arms together and remarked "You're being way too generous here. What's the catch?" 'D.' shrugged his shoulders and said "Can a demon not be a tiny bit lenient sometimes? It's more beneficial to keep the possessed happy every now and then. Don't get me wrong though, I will still attempt to break through your subconscious barriers after you've bested this Gravitus person." Mew blinked a couple times and said "…Yeah, I figured that would be the case."

The demon grinned, followed by him raising his four arms up and stating "Now then, I grow tired of speaking with you. Humor me with a fine performance out there, Elemental Overlord." Mew closed his eyelids and felt as 'D.' used his arms to push his darkness into the representation of Mew's body within his subconscious, which would actually affect him in the outside world. After 'D.' has placed enough darkness in Mew's body, the boy widens his eyes open to reveal that his irises have turned yellow.

Back in the outside world, where only a couple minutes had passed due to the differences in the flow of time between the subconscious and reality, Gravitus has already heavily damaged Kairi's body without still moving from the same spot as before. Gravitus grinned as he looked at Kairi's bleeding and tattered form, with Kairi's sweat mixing in with the blood to increase how much it flowed across her skin and armor. She panted for a few seconds before Gravitus lifted her left hand up and said "Just remember, dear daughter…I gave you the chance to do this willingly."

Using his powers of gravity, the man binds Kairi with his aura and then sends her hurtling down against the ground within the top floor of the pyramid, with her screaming sharply in pain for a few seconds. As she lies against the ground and watches Gravitus slowly float back to the pyramid, she grits her teeth and thinks in a panicked tone _"W-Why? How can anyone ever hope to beat that monster? W-Was this all for nothing? Was I never intended to win from the start? Shina…Mew…Everyone…I'm s-s-sorry…" _Kairi then widened her eyes as the ground gave way below her and sent her plummeting deeper into the pyramid, all the while she let out a prolonged "Aaaaah!" of fright that echoed as she fell.

Gravitus looked at the situation unfold and remarked in annoyance "Hrrm…I'll have to waste a little time to retrieve her, but whatever…" But before he made his move, Gravitus sensed something very peculiar rising up from the bottom floor of the pyramid, something grim and angry in nature. With an intrigued grin on his face, the man rubbed his chin and remarked without a care "Now…What is this I'm sensing?"

From Kairi's perspective, she suddenly felt her fall come to an end when she landed on something she did not recognize. Opening her eyelids, Kairi watched as she was rising up back towards the top floor of the pyramid, as though something was carrying her there. Confused, Kairi immediately looked to the left and was left completely taken aback when she saw Mew's face in her presence. But there was something certainly different about him. His body was now surrounded by a hollow black aura, and demonic wings made of a thickened black goop were attached to his back, with his irises yellow in color.

"M-Mew?" Kairi stuttered, amazed and confused as to how Mew could possibly still be alive, and as Mew brought her up to the top floor of the pyramid she felt her wounds healing up as Mew poured his energy into her body to help her. Once on the top floor, Mew lowered his arms and let Kairi get down onto her feet, and she willingly made the choice to drop her Angel Drive and return to her normal clothes to preserve her aura. Gripping one hand around the middle of her other arm, Kairi's heart raced a bit as Mew looked at her with his demonic eyes.

Mew smiled at her with the same happiness he usually did, showing that he had not forgone his kindness while in this demonic state. Kindly, Mew said to Kairi "It's ok now. Everything is going to be fine." In the face of what seemed like the ultimate despair, Kairi could believe what Mew was saying to her, but asked all the same "W-What happened to you?" Mew laid both of his hands, which were wrapped with darkness in a way that looked like pointed claws, on both of Kairi's shoulders and told her while looking clean into her eyes "For the first time in a long while…I feel alive."

Kairi glanced away from Mew and said in a stuttering tone of voice "Y-You're…g-going to fight Gravitus again, aren't you? He's a monster…How can you possibly hope to win?" Mew tilted his head slightly and said with an aloof expression "Well, let's see here…I got the proper motivation, I'm full of energy, and I have the perfect form to use against him. I'd say my odds are a lot better than his at this point." After that, Mew looked at Kairi with a serious, smiling expression as he pulled his arms away, making a two-fingered gesture beside his head before he says to her "Kairi…When all this is said and done…I'm going to be done with all my lying. I'll tell you everything I want to, no more secrets, I promise."

Kairi nodded her head twice, saying all the while "Y-Yeah! There'll be no more secrets from me either…" Clenching her fists close to her chest while holding back her tears slightly, Kairi added to her sentence as she hung her head slightly "Please don't die…" "Heh…I'd like to see someone out there who could kill me. I'm too stubborn to die." Mew said before he rose up from the ground and turned away from Kairi, making his way up into the sky to fight Gravitus while she looked on at him.

Once Mew floated face-to-face with Gravitus again, the man spread his arms out and said "Heheh…So it's true what they say…An Elemental Overlord is as hard to kill as a cockroach. But I did not expect you to come back to face me with merely a new coat of paint on your body, little one." Gravitus remarked while rubbing his chin, followed by Mew grinning much like 'D.' would and stating "What can I say, I die hard." Gravitus flinched a bit upon seeing that grin, and put on a more serious expression as he held his scythe beside his hip and remarked "That smile…So all this time that parasitic demon has been inside of your subconscious."

"Oh? You've seen him before? Well good, then you know just what I'm capable of now." Mew said with a humored chuckle, and Gravitus lifted his left hand up and stated while preparing his aura to use his powers "You're capable of putting up little resistance yet again, little Overlord…" Mew's body is wrapped in Gravitus' aura, but after a few seconds of trying to make the body bend to his will via his powers Gravitus finds that Mew isn't budging in the slightest. Dropping his powers for a moment, Gravitus grit his teeth slightly and muttered "What type of trick is this?"

Mew suddenly raised his eyebrows and said with a justifiably confident tone "Tell me Gravitus, why would you ever assume for a second that pure darkness could bend to the will of gravity?" Gravitus growled a little upon hearing that, and Mew said to him while cracking his knuckles "What was it you said me earlier? 'Your short history is at an end'? Gravitus…There's only one person whose history is coming to an end here, and that's yours. You and your tyranny, all the suffering you've caused, I'm going bury it away with the powers of darkness."

Gravitus was now frustrated by Mew's words, and he quickly flew back quite a few feet away and created those spheres he made earlier from his aura. He threw them right at Mew for his attack, but Mew quickly dodges one of them while distorting the air a bit, then extended his claws out enough that he could rend through the remaining spheres with a single swing. Mew then put on a blunt and serious expression as he held his arms in front of his face, stating to Gravitus "Ok then…PREPARE YOURSELF, GRAVITUS!" Mew then flew right at the angered Gravitus as the man flared his aura up, ready to initiate his greatest battle of all.

_Next Time: The Dark Hero_


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22: Gravitus Phase 4: Nothing To Lose, Everything to Gain**

The battle between the darkness revitalized Mew and Gravitus began brutally, with Mew thrusting his claws of darkness out with all of his energy at Gravitus as the man grasped his scythe in both hands and swung it out in broad strokes to defend himself, each attack lashing waves of darkness and aura across the skies due to how hard they were hitting each other. After a few seconds of going at this, Mew thrusts both of his palms out and strikes the center of Gravitus' scythe after he made another swing, pushing Gravitus back ten feet while giving himself enough time to swing his arms out and charge black electricity in his palms within barely compressed spheres.

Gravitus grit his teeth and said in a barely calm tone of voice "How dare you…Do you think you can stay immune to my powers for long, boy?!" Mew swings his hands out to throw the orbs he made in an arc at Gravitus, but the man retaliates by swinging his scythe down hard in front of him to send a towering crescent wave of his own aura straight at the spheres, destroying both and making them burst into x-shaped streams of electricity.

The wave keeps going forward until Mew swerves his body to his left in an instant and lashed his right claws out to tear right through Gravitus' attack, all the while proclaiming "I told you already! You're going to pay for all that you've caused! I need to stack everything in my favor to win!" He then followed up on his claw lash to send three large waves of black flames through the air, all of them howling across the thundering sky as they moved towards Gravitus.

Instead of attacking them, Gravitus floats up and back to avoid the flames, followed by him swinging his left hand out and grabbing the flames with his powers while letting out a brief grunt, and not long after the flames are wrapped in his aura does Gravitus command them to flip around and fly back at their master. "Then I shall turn your very advantages against you!" Gravitus exclaimed arrogantly, followed by Mew furrowing his brow before he casually held his left hand out and bent the flames within Gravitus' aura to create three small spheres at the center of them. He pulled the spheres from the aura with one hard pull of his hand, making said spheres merge together into a larger one before his palm.

Grinning afterwards, Mew thrusts his hand out and sends out a gargantuan beam of black flames through Gravitus' aura attack and sends it straight towards the man himself. Gravitus swings both of his arms out and creates a spherical force field around his body consisting entirely of his aura to protect himself from the beam, which clashes straight-on with the front of it and begins to push him back while working hard to try and break through. But a man of Gravitus' power could not so easily be broken, especially when it came to his defenses, and thus Mew knew he'd have to make a little more of a push to break through.

Because of that, Mew chose to push right through the end of his own beam of fire, making Gravitus believe that the attack was letting up as he could neither sense or see Mew from his current position. Mew breaks out of the front of his flame beam by gathering them up in his right claws and swinging as hard as he could across the front of Gravitus' barrier, putting three large gashes into it and causing small scars to cross onto his metallic chest as the barrier shatters.

Mew then flipped his body around and kicked his right foot upward, in an attempt to strike Gravitus in the chin, but the man raised his left hand up and grabbed onto the bottom of his foot to prevent it from connecting. Gravitus was shocked that he could touch Mew, but got the answer to his curiosity when Mew suddenly became a purely ethereal figure of darkness for but a second before he spun himself into an upright position and turned back to normal.

Gravitus quickly tried to swing his left hand up and attempt to affect Mew with his gravity powers, but once more his aura did nothing and Mew didn't leave him enough time to think this through as he quickly took both of his hands and grabbed Gravitus' left wrist. Using his strength, Mew twisted the wrist to the left to crack the internal machinery apart and twist the metal slightly, making a physically painful sounding creak until he had contorted it 180 degrees. Mew then let go and flew back before Gravitus could attack with his scythe. As Gravitus was about to exclaim "How dare you!" in an offended tone Mew thrust his left claw out, extending the length of it but applying the same amount of strength as he possibly could with his physical arm around Gravitus' neck.

The man gasped, but then projected a ring of aura around his neck to ensure that Mew wouldn't be able to crush it. Mew grinned and said "Fine by me…" before he suddenly tugged on Gravitus' body as hard as he could to pull him over his head and prepare to throw him against the roof of the pyramid. As he was being swung through the air, Gravitus tried to swing his scythe to cut Mew's ethereal limb, but he was completely surprised when Mew predicted that very move and had another limb extend out from the wrist of the first and grab the top of Gravitus' scythe to hold it back.

Gravitus is then slammed against the roof of the pyramid, cracking the surface of it a great deal without making it cave-in below his body…At least as far as the first impact goes. Mew slams Gravitus' body twice more against the roof to break a hole into it, then tosses Gravitus into it as hard as he could to make him crash through all the floors in the pyramid and weaken his body slightly. Once Mew had thrown Gravitus away, he casually swings his right hand out beside himself, mumbling stuff about focusing on where to aim the black flames that were charging up in front of his palm.

Gravitus burst out of the side of the pyramid with a large blast of his own aura, bringing forth the dust and rocky debris of the pyramid's structure along with him as he flew straight up towards Mew, only to be met with Mew smirking as he fired a fire blast right down at Gravitus, his prediction being perfectly accurate of where the man would emerge from. But Gravitus had prepared for this move himself, even in the midst of his anger, and with a mighty swing of both his hands he threw his scythe out to intercept the fire blast.

Mew's fire blast created a large five-pointed sign in the air as Gravitus' scythe connected with it, but with the added reinforcement of his own aura Gravitus is able to command his scythe to rip right through the center of the attack and keep going straight towards Mew. Mew knew he couldn't just throw the scythe back at Gravitus with how much aura was wrapped around it, so instead he pulled forth a darkened version of his sword from a black void and set it on fire so he could use it to attack the scythe as it flew towards him.

Mew swung his sword around so rapidly in front of him to push back Gravitus' scythe that the weapon did not even have an inch of freedom to push through. Gravitus flew up towards Mew while using his powers to fling the rocky debris at him in hopes of distracting the boy even once, but Mew was too aware of his surroundings, too focused on everything in spite of his anger towards the man, and summoned forth a couple of claws from the darkness around his body to catch and crush the rocks without a challenge.

Flipping over the scythe, Mew then performed a quick backhand swing with all of his strength to push the weapon back towards it's owner. Gravitus grabbed the scythe in his right hand and then grasped them in both, pulling it behind his head and then performing a hard swing towards Mew. Mew counters with his own hard swing, and the two grind their weapons together for a few seconds before repelling off of each other. But while Mew uses the repel to push himself back, Gravitus quickly charges forward again to go for another strike.

Mew and Gravitus clash weapons for a few swift seconds, impacting with each other roughly ten times while moving wildly across the air until Gravitus chose to break up their clash by using his scythe swing to send out twenty of his gravity spheres, hoping that all of them converging on Mew's location would be enough to contain him, ethereal form or not. During this time Gravitus has used his gravity powers to turn his left hand back into the normal position, though he was still severely irritated that Mew even managed such a feat.

Mew draws a second sword and cuts down all of the gravity spheres by combining the blades down into a gigantic one and bringing it down like a cleaver straight through every sphere, bathing the sky before him in black flames as well that howl demonically. Mew then dispelled the giant blade and kept a fair distance away from Gravitus, who held his arms out while levitating his scythe in front of him and stated "I am done playing this little game on your terms, boy! It's time for you to realize just how outmatched you are, regardless of whatever form you choose to take!"

Gravitus raised his arms higher up, and all of a sudden two gigantic icebergs rose up behind him with amazing ease. The chilly waters the icebergs were wrenched from dripped slowly down it, showing that they were pulled very quickly. Each iceberg was bigger than the entire Sages' Pyramid, and had the man been in the wrong mindset he likely could've broken Sancturia with those two icebergs alone. However, his true intention with those icebergs was made clear as he quickly swung them through the air towards both sides of Mew's body by clapping his hands together to guide them.

Mew is slammed between both icebergs before he could even react, and Gravitus uses his powers to bind the ice as tightly around Mew's body as he possibly could to prevent him from escaping. Mew grunted in pain a bit, thinking to himself _"W-Well I'll give him credit…I can't become ethereal while under this much pressure." _Mew struggled to move his right claw to try and lay it against one of the walls, but this only confirmed that he could not budge anything but his lips and inch due to how well Gravitus bound the icebergs to his body.

Gravitus swung his arms out and picked up his scythe in the meantime, laughing for a few seconds as he kept the icebergs crunching against Mew's body, looking upon the monument of his powers without so much as exerting any effort in keeping it steady while exclaiming "Do you think you can make a mockery of me, little Overlord? You waste your persistence and fighting talents on trying to oppose me! If you had any iota of common sense, you'd give up this charade and join me to bring peace!"

The man's attempt to corral Mew to his side just made the boy angry, and he quickly exclaimed "To hell with your goals! You're a monster!" "I will not be lambasted by the hypocrisy of a boy who is relying on the power of a demon! Perhaps you do not seem to understand the position you are in!" Gravitus exclaimed, tightening the grasp of his left hand to thicken the amount of aura surrounding the icebergs to make them grip around Mew even harder, which started to crack Mew's bones as well.

Gravitus then also showed off another of his powers, as he held his fingers out and used his powers of gravity to target the very Aurians in the city below, pulling their aura from their bodies and dragging them up to his open palm as they screamed in surprise and fright, unaware of just what was going on to their aura due to how far up the battle was being held. Kairi watched the aura rise up in multiple colored streams and stated in a worried tone "H-He can even target the aura in our bodies? He's truly a monster beyond us all…"

As Gravitus slowly began to gather all the aura he wanted into his hand, he stated to Mew "Your life is expendable for the greater good, boy! I have been a fair man thus far, I made the conscious decision to give you a chance to become a part of my cause, but since you've chosen to be so arrogant and stubborn, then I will scatter you and your darkness to the winds! And then you will have to descend to Hell itself with the knowledge that this Earth will be mine to do with as I please once I acquire the Neo Drive!"

This remark caused Mew to widen his eyes in fervent anger, remarking as he barely grit his teeth "W-What did you say?!" The darkness around his body grew bigger, starting to put tiny, barely noticeable cracks within the ice as Gravitus replied with an arrogant grin on his face "What shall I do with your world? Eliminate the human race and use the resources as a ground to breed the future generations of Aurians that will carry on my goals? Give the planet up to Pluto as I vowed to him before? Or perhaps I will simply destroy it…After all, it's not like I cannot find another Earth out there in this grand universe of ours…Yours is nothing special, little Overlord."

After a moment of silence, Mew's arms started to budge in the middle of the icebergs, and he clasped his claws against them while gritting his teeth so tightly that it's no wonder that he doesn't break them. Mew then stated to Gravitus "S-So what if it isn't special? T-That doesn't matter to me, and it doesn't matter to her either! It's always been her dream to go down to the surface with her sister, a dream that she cannot live to accomplish while you're still here Gravitus…"

"Dreams? Dreams are just the embodiment of unfulfilled desires. A child's fallacy, if you would say." Gravitus remarked while the aura continued to flow in. Mew pressed his claws deeper into the icebergs and stated "You're right…We all have dreams, but not all of us have the strength or ability to see them through. But I'm going to be her strength, I'm going to be the one to see that her dream is fulfilled, even if I have to plunge into the deepest darkness to do so…"

Mew began to crack the iceberg further and further, this time forcing Gravitus to notice and apply more pressure with his own gravity powers to get in Mew's way. But Mew fought on, exclaiming with all of his might as his rage built up further from Gravitus' resistance "You're the one who doesn't understand the position he's in Gravitus! You pissed off the wrong Elemental Overlord here! Your desires are going to go unfulfilled! You will not touch the Earth! You will not touch Kairi! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO LET ANYONE SUFFER EVER AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!"

In a sheer burst of pure unbridled rage, Mew sent all possible darkness through the cracks of the iceberg, overriding Gravitus' aura to the point that he shatters and disintegrates the entirety of both icebergs with his raw power. Gravitus widened his eyes in surprise, but then is taken off-guard when Mew ends up right in front of him in a second while his darkness erupted brightly around his entire body with his claws plunged right through the center of Gravitus' body, all the while letting out a continuous roar for ten seconds as he began to drag the man with him across the sky at a very high speed.

With Gravitus being pulled away from Sancturia, his control over the aura of his people was broken, and once Mew was done roaring he looked at Gravitus with fervent eyes and exclaimed "IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GO ON A WORLD TOUR BEFORE I DRAG YOU TO HELL, GRAVITUS! LETS GO!" Gravitus attempts to push against the momentum Mew was dragging him through while looking down at the boy with an angered scowl, but before he could even budge his left hand towards Mew's head the boy began to dive straight down towards the ocean waters.

Mew plunged right past the water's surface and went through thousands upon thousand of leagues under the sea, passing by tons of creatures as he dragged Gravitus right down as far as he possibly could, for he had brought the man straight to the Mariana Trench. Once at the bottom of said trench, Mew slammed Gravitus against the seafloor with enough force to crack it, and then he ripped the claws from the man's body and slipped away into the pure darkness of the deep ocean waters.

Gravitus slowly pulled himself off the seafloor and tried to look around, but it was so dark that only the brightest of light could possibly make it through. He quickly worked to rebuild the scars on his metal body and wrap his head in a protective barrier so he could breathe this far down, but the pressure of the waters slowly began to build on his body and crunched it down, forcing Gravitus to put a lot of his efforts into keeping his body together while not knowing where Mew had gone off to.

Gravitus swung his head around as much as he could to try and seek Mew out, unaware that the boy was floating right behind him with his eyes glowing a very bright yellow, as he could see everything perfectly in this environment, including the anger on the man's face. Mew then went right behind the man's body and struck him with a clawing uppercut, ripping right through the man's body and knocking him upward at a very fast speed. Mew moves even faster than the man ascends though, ripping through more of his body with broad claw swipes while continuing to push him further towards the surface.

Gravitus could not for a second predict where Mew was going to attack from next, which just further increased his frustration as he worked hard to seal up the scars in his body with his powers. Once the brightness increased enough for Gravitus to see, Mew was just seconds away from pulling him out of the water, and Mew ended his assault off by slamming both of his claws into the front of Gravitus' body and ripping the chest right off, using the metal as a conductor for his darkness to increase it's strength and then smash the front of Gravitus' head with a bat-like swing.

Gravitus is propelled out of the water with the barrier around his head broken and a firm hit to his nose that made it start to bleed, but for a moment he had a break from Mew's assault. Gripping his scythe as tight as he could, Gravitus formed a hundred foot wall of aura in front of his body and slashed right at it, sending forth a gargantuan barrage of needles and gravity spheres into the water to attack Mew, bulleting the surface with enough impacts to raise forth an unimaginable number of gallons of water away in geyser-like spurts.

But Mew charged right through all the attacks Gravitus sent at him, pushing away all the water surrounding his body with his aura as he emerged and throwing out a punch that allowed him to shatter the wall of aura Gravitus had created in an instant, and with his expression still energetic from all the anger he was utilizing against his foe Mew wasted little time in going for another punch without hesitation. But now that the pressure was off of him slightly, Gravitus swung his scythe out to clash with Mew's punch.

The collision of attacks created such a powerful shockwave of energy that it struck the water and made it erupt in a wall around the edge of the shockwave before it all went cascading back down as Mew and Gravitus locked attacks and glares. Gravitus split away from Mew's fist and quickly flew thirty feet away, switching which hand held his scythe so he could use his right one to focus on something a very far distance away with his gravity, remarking as Mew charged at him "You think I haven't taken the time to study your planet, boy?!"

Mew attempts to disrupt Gravitus' powers by rapidly throwing black lightning bolts from his hands as they were compressed into spears, but the man swung his scythe out to block each attack while moving back slowly, and in a few seconds the fruit of his work came towards him from the sky afar. Pulled perfectly from whatever land he got it from was an entire volcano wrapped in Gravitus' aura, and the man used the volcano to launch a wave of pure magma straight at Mew, guiding it with his aura for good measure.

Mew was more concerned about what Gravitus planned to do with the volcano itself than the magma that was coming his way, a fact made clear when he flew head-first towards the magna while enveloping his body in a bullet-shell of darkness and began to move right through it, regardless of Gravitus' aura getting in his way as well. Gravitus took advantage of Mew's kind-hearted nature to push as hard as he could on the magma to drag it down towards the ocean while Mew was still inside, making the magma solidify into a shell that dragged Mew down into the ocean.

"Be buried, a forgotten relic lost to the sea, boy!" Gravitus remarked as he clenched his hand tightly and stopped pulling magma from the volcano, but before he prepared to just let the volcano drop into the ocean a sphere of darkness expanded greatly within the center of the volcano and disintegrated it down to the last molecule along with any aura Gravitus had poured into it, something that caught the man off-guard as he turned to the right to watch the event unfold and remarked "Impossible!"

Mew then reappeared behind Gravitus, revealing that he had not been stuck in the solidified magma as Gravitus had originally thought, and with a straight thrust of his black flaming sword Mew stabbed Gravitus right through the back of his body and sliced him in half horizontally, separating him perfectly from both halves. But as Gravitus has already shown, no wound is too grievous to repair on his body, as he uses his powers to merge the two halves back together while he turned around to face Mew again.

"YOU SAVAGE!" Gravitus exclaimed as he swung his scythe at Mew again. As Mew narrowed his eyebrows at Gravitus' hypocrisy, he lifted his right hand up after dispelling his sword and grabbed onto the center of the man's weapon, and with one hard tug that comes out faster than the man could react Mew pulled the scythe free from his grasp and threw it far, far away behind him without even turning to acknowledge it. Mew then lifted his body up slightly and grabbed Gravitus by his neck, and the man anticipated another neck squeeze and prepared a barrier accordingly.

But Mew instead threw Gravitus straight down to the left of him, using his other hand to throw out a bullet of darkness so the man wouldn't go back into the ocean and instead get forced to bounce across the surface for a few seconds. Gravitus recovered from being struck and skid back along the surface of the water while standing completely upright, and he created a gigantic explosive wave of aura around his body that pushed the water away around him and briefly prevented Mew from just charging right at him again.

"Bastard…" Gravitus said as his explosive wave vanished and he swung his right hand to pull his scythe back to him across great distances in but a few seconds, and once it was clasped in his hand he remarked while the water stabilized below his feet "You dare to continue to defy a god?!" Mew didn't respond to the man's words with some of his own, instead choosing to land on the water's surface and run straight at Gravitus to engage in more close-combat. Throwing punches out a rapid-pace to dent the metal armor, Mew is met with defiance as Gravitus swings his scythe in broad strokes to defend himself.

Each attack Gravitus made brushed the surface of the water and threw it up high into the air, and he glided back along the water to avoid folding under the pressure of Mew's attacks. But eventually Mew fired one hard punch straight into Gravitus' chest to send him flying back a very far distance away, his feet scraping the surface of the ocean and leaving behind trails in his wake so Mew would have a clear idea of just where Gravitus was going and could thus use his speed to keep up with him.

Mew sprinted across the water to catch up with Gravitus, and the two of them had traveled miles to make it to the shoreline of the eastern continent of Asia, specifically near the southern part of China. Unfortunately, this was not Mew's intention, and he quickly switched from playing offensively to defensively as he knew Gravitus would try to damage the area to distract him. Gravitus hit the edge of the shore and dug through at least fifty feet of sand before stopping, but not before his sudden appearance frightened all of the people that had come to enjoy the scenery.

As Gravitus pulled himself up from the sand and recognized that he was on a human shoreline, he grinned a bit and prepared to cause trouble just as Mew predicted, but as he raised his hand up to his powers on the land and people Mew got right in front of him and threw a hard punch right into his chin to knock him right through the mound of sand behind where he stood, though he also dug his knuckles in enough to crack the bones slightly. Mew didn't have time to stop and apologize to the Chinese for this interruption though as he leaped up with enough force to brush the sand back into place with a shockwave and pursued Gravitus.

Gravitus purposely pushed his knocked back body towards the towering buildings and rural neighborhoods of Hong Kong that were relatively close by, and by swinging his right hand back he extended the reach of his aura into the shape of a broad fist to try and strike one of the buildings down. But Mew pushed forward and got between the building and Gravitus' attack and swung two swords out to strike the aura and shatter it, only for Gravitus to keep flying back while looking at the ground, this time preparing to use his powers to pull cars both inhabited and empty from the traffic filled streets.

Mew knew he had to get Gravitus out of this city quickly, and as such waited a moment until he and Gravitus were lined up with an opening between two builds that was big enough for both of them to fit through, at which point Mew planted his feet against the glass windows on the building behind him and remarked "I hate to cause property damage, but…" before disregarding all remaining hesitation and kicking forward, shattering the glass for yards on end as he charged right into Gravitus and struck him hard enough in the side of his body to make him lose concentration on the cars and have them drop back down to the road.

Unfortunately, some of the cars crunched as they landed, and Mew couldn't tell from where he was if the people inside had been hurt or otherwise killed from that. He only let out a grimace and focused back on the battle as hard as he could, fueling his power with even more anger towards Gravitus as the two of them flew between a couple of buildings. Mew pushed Gravitus away with a swing of his left arm out and then drew a sword again while Gravitus clenched his scythe tightly and swung his arms out preparing to create another explosive wave to damage the buildings around him as evidenced by the surge of aura electricity around his body.

However, Mew handled stopping him a little differently and slashed the air in front of him to create a crescent wave that traveled behind Gravitus and birthed a gap into the darkness wide enough to swallow the man and put him out of sight right as he unleashed his explosive wave. Mew then swung his sword out to create another gap that would free Gravitus, but he aimed it diagonally towards the sky so the man couldn't crash into the buildings in the process. To make sure he would be stunned for a little while, Mew also made sure to punch Gravitus with a fist of darkness from the gap.

Mew swung around the building and rose up to pursue Gravitus, using his sword to create a couple more gaps to control Gravitus' flight path away from the city. Once Gravitus was far enough away from the city Mew went right above him with his sword raised in both hands and plunged it straight into the man's metallic chest to drag him down from the sky at a rapid pace, thankfully towards a grassland away from any civilization. Impacting with the ground, Mew makes sure not to harm the grass with flames as he pins Gravitus to the ground, holding him down as hard as he could while gritting his teeth.

He let out a single relaxed breath now that the humans were safe for the moment, and he pulled his sword from Gravitus and leaped back, swinging it out at the ground to send a wave of darkness up that launches the man even further away. Mew then dispelled his sword and flew straight after Gravitus, pursuing him through miles of landscape as he laid a hand to the wound in his armor and pulled it all back together, and he swung his right arm out and used his aura to create a field of his gravitational spheres while exclaiming "You can't protect this world forever, boy!"

He then flung the spheres at Mew, but the boy ripped through them all with his claws before they could come close to pulling anything from the environment while stating "So long as it is a world worth protecting, you won't stop me!" Mew brought both of his claws before his body and slashed in an X-Pattern towards Gravitus, only for the man to create a barrier around his body to temporarily protect himself, all the while the two of them had made it to the Himalayan Mountains, where the snowy atmosphere had ceased thanks to the thundering climate change made by Gravitus' power.

Gravitus lands on one of the mountain tops and holds his scythe back while blazing the blade with his pure raw aura, exclaiming as his cape flutters behind him "You waste your power on just one world! Do you have no motivation to protect the others out there?!" He then swung his scythe out to unleash a ridiculously large wave of aura towards Mew. Mew held his hands out to catch the attack and slowly start to crush it, responding to Gravitus' comment by saying "Forgive me for a being a bit biased since this is my birth world! I would love to help other worlds, but there's other problems I have to deal with first before I can trusted to do so!"

Mew then crushed the wave of aura entirely and charged at Gravitus, but the man leaped from the top of the mountain to another one while stating angrily "To save these worlds you have to be willing to make sacrifices! You may have allowed yourself to take upon the power of a demon, but you do not have what it takes to go the extra mile to save anything!" As he speaks he raised his left hand up and summoned forth aura in his palm, thrusting his hand out to match the power of Mew's black flame fist.

Mew is forced to hold back on his power, otherwise the clash of attacks would create a shockwave that would destroy the mountains around them. This forced Mew to be punched back by Gravitus' attack, but he didn't take too much damage and quickly said to Gravitus "I know when enough is enough! 'Going the extra mile' is basically your way of saying that your monstrous actions should be considered justified just because you plan to bring peace to other worlds!" Mew clenched his right fist tightly against his chest and stopped being sent back, spreading his wings wide and pausing for a moment as Gravitus placed one foot down on top of a mountain and folded his arms together.

"I may be channeling the power of a demon, but at least I haven't abandoned who I am. I haven't abandoned my humanity. What about you Gravitus? I bet you don't even recognize the fact that you abandoned your own people…And I especially doubt you remember the name of a single person whose life you've made a living hell over the past two-thousand years. No Aurian will ever follow your crazy plan for peace willingly…They'll all just do it out of fear, and eventually someone will rise up to stop you even if I somehow fail!" Mew told Gravitus off as much as he could, a well-earned berating considering that the man could do nothing to silence him.

"You're quite wrong in that regard…I will remember you name for sure, little Overlord, for so persistently defying m-" Before Gravitus finished his sentence, Mew had charged right into his chest and dug both of his claws into his body and began digging in while pushing the man through the sky as fast as he possibly could, gritting his teeth while remarking "You can remember my name for the rest of eternity as you burn in hell, Gravitus! Lets see you recover from this!"

Once Mew had crossed enough of the sky to put Gravitus right back above the Sages' Pyramid in mere seconds he pulled with all of his strength and rage, ripping his claws through Gravitus' body to create a large and wide x-shaped scar of black flames that tears apart Gravitus' body so thoroughly that, as Mew said, it would be an incredible feat for Gravitus to put himself back together. A lot of the man's inner machinery burns to pieces with black flames as the scarred fragments of his legs arms and upper body float about in the air, Gravitus widening his eyes in disbelief that Mew could've gone this far.

Mew pulled back away from Gravitus about twenty feet and glared at the man, telling him as he clapped his hands together "You made your choices, and I made mine Gravitus. This was just the inevitable end result of your choices…" Once Mew had said what he wanted to, he looked on with a curious glance as Gravitus used his aura to slowly start putting his body back together, a task made possible only because of the special metal Saturn had created for the body. But once Gravitus was done putting himself back together, he was panting ever-so-slightly.

Mew folded his arms together and said "So even that wasn't enough…Looks like I won't be able to finish you off unless I crush your head." Gravitus smirked at Mew and told him "To push me this far…To think that you'd be stronger than your foolish brother while using just one of the two chaotic elements…Hahaha, but if you think you can simply crush my head and be done with me, then you are sorely mistaken. It's an impossible task, but you are welcome to try if you feel so brave."

Mew brandished his right pointer finger at Gravitus and remarked "You keep using up a lot of your aura to keep your body repaired, Gravitus. No matter how powerful you are, your energy has limits, while I'm still fresh and ready to continue fighting. It's ridiculous to think that I can't crush your head." Gravitus grinned brightly and without warning he lifted his head back a bit and started laughing in a rather eerie manner, bordering almost on being unhinged. "I'm probably going to regret asking…But what's so funny?" Mew inquired.

Gravitus stopped laughing and said to Mew while gesturing his left hand out "You've spoken of making choices in your life, boy…But you are very ignorant to the grave error you made this very day." "…." Mew stayed cautious as he listened to Gravitus' words, and the man continued on to say "Defeating all nine Planetary Aurians in a single day will prove to be your undoing…You haven't just doomed yourself, but your precious little planet as well!"

_Next Time: No Regrets_


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23: Gravitus Phase 5: Defiance of My Cowardice**

"Defeating the Planetary Aurians was a mistake? How could that be?" Mew inquired while keeping his arms folded together, thinking all too well that Gravitus was attempting to stall for time with his words. But at the same time Gravitus spoke way too calmly for a man assumedly in a state of desperation, and he rubbed his chin while explaining "It only makes sense that you would be ignorant to what I am saying. Perhaps you should have done a little research into the ways of the Aurians…Or more specifically, you should have questioned why the Planetary Aurians exist a little bit more."

Mew swung his right hand out and prepared to attack Gravitus, but the man raised his hand away from his chin and stated "I told you already, attacking my head will do you no good." Mew quickly flew at Gravitus and attempted to throw his claw of darkness right at his head, but all of a sudden an overflow of aura comes out from the neck of Gravitus' armor and protects his head entirely in a thick sphere. Even for all of his strength, Mew couldn't even crack the sphere of aura.

Mew pulls back a bit and looks rather surprised by this defense Gravitus was able to put up, with Gravitus peeling back the aura around his head and smirking before telling him "You must be taking me for a fool if you thought that you could just end things so easily. I had Saturn put a feature into my armor that would allow me to instantly create a barrier should my head be threatened by a fatal blow. So please…You're welcome to try again, because I can keep doing this as long as I want, while you're just wasting your time…"

"…Damn you." Mew murmured, followed by him lowering his arm for a moment and waiting for another opportunity to attack. The man surely could not have instantaneous reflexes when it comes to summoning his shield. Until he could do so though, he had to listen as Gravitus explained what he had brought up earlier. Back to rubbing his chin, Gravitus smirked and told the boy "Now understand this…The Planetary Aurians serve two purposes in this universe. One is to protect the greater universe out there from threats beyond the scope of most normal beings…And the other is to act as the guardians of a key."

"A key?" Mew inquired, followed by Gravitus stating "Long ago, in the time of the Elemental Overlord, he and the Dark King sealed a great power away within a cage made of miniature stars. With the help of the Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage, they connected the cage to a key that the Planetary Aurians guard. Now, I bet you believe that said key is something as simple as a small golden key, or perhaps a complex device born of the cosmos itself…But you'd be wrong. The key to the cage is closer than you think. In fact, you can say that you are flying in the atmosphere of one of the key's 'teeth'."

Mew paused for a moment and thought about the man's words for a moment, and his mouth went slightly agape as he whispered out "The planet Earth is part of the key to that cage?" Gravitus grinned and said "Not just the Earth. All nine planets in the solar system and the very Sun itself ARE the key to the cage." "That's impossible. How could planets possibly be used as-" Mew was about to continue debating how what Gravitus said made little sense, but then his eyes widened as he finished putting it all together.

"No…It can't be…" Mew whispered out, and Gravitus said to him while extending his right hand out "So you finally realized the truth. The Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage put an enchantment on the planets, making it so that they could never be aligned again on their own. Not even I could make the planets align no matter how much I tried. But because the planets are tied to the Planetary Aurians, there is another way to make the planets align…Specifically, by defeating all nine of them, the planets align back into place regardless of where they are currently positioned while taking Earth's current place into consideration."

"So all this time…The Planetary Aurians were also preventing this key from being assembled. But I still don't see how this dooms the Earth. You're just giving me information I really don't need to hear, Gravitus." Mew pointed out while brandishing his right hand at the man, but while he was thinking about what the man was talking about Gravitus had subtly moved his left hand behind his back. Mew quickly assumed that he was trying something and quickly flung his right hand out to fire out a beam of black flames to disrupt Gravitus' actions.

The man pulled his hand away from his back and used his gravity powers to repel the flames, and Mew exclaimed at him "Just what do you think you're doing?!" Gravitus stated quickly in response after a slight bit of laughter "I am simply securing my victory over you, little Overlord!" Mew quickly flew at Gravitus and tried to grab him by his neck, but the man pulled up another sphere of aura around his head as Mew gripped as hard as he possibly could to try and break through. Gravitus left in some air holes this time around so he could continue to gloat with laughter before stating "It's already too late for you now! You won't stop what is coming simply by killing me!"

Mew grit his teeth and exclaimed "What the HELL did you do?!" "Hahaha…You've gone from a skeptic to a believer rather quickly, little Overlord! Think about it for a moment…If the planets are the 'teeth' of the key, then what would be the head of it? Why, the answer lies with the very sun itself! And while you were busy thinking about my words, I used my powers to turn the very sun itself, and have unlocked the cage because of it!" Gravitus exclaimed without fear of Mew's strength.

"How! How could you possibly have moved the sun?!" Mew wondered with a bit of panic in his voice, and Gravitus stated "Haahahahaha! I told you, boy, that my Space Drive allows to affect any parts of space so long as I have memorized where something is at! Your sun is but a mere tool for me to use, and the power that's now been released from the cage is also mine to bend to my whim!" Mew pressured the barrier around Gravitus' head with even more force than before, but he could not make the barrier crack regardless of what he tried.

"As you waste your time trying to kill me, the time-space portal I set up close to the cage has activated, and is currently sending the energy released from the cage hurtling through your galaxy! I have used my powers to activate shields around all planets but the Earth as a defensive measure for this energy…So while you float here and act like an utter fool, that energy is prepared to bring annihilation to your entire planet! I can protect Sancturia with my own aura, but needless to say time's quickly running out for your world…So what will it be boy…You can either surrender to me and I will redirect the energy around the Earth so it can fly harmlessly into the sun, or you can have a front-row seat to the destruction of your world!"

Gravitus made his ultimatum known to Mew without the least bit of hesitation in his voice, laughing as Mew grits his teeth tightly and panics over what was approaching the planet. To make his point better known, Gravitus used his powers to split away the dark clouds in the sky, and Mew looked up and saw something bright rapidly moving through the sky towards the planet. It started as a speck from the distance it was at, but would soon be large enough to eclipse even the presence of the sun was anywhere in the sky before him.

Mew looked at Gravitus and then back at the light approaching the planet, and then did it again two more times with his heart pumping ever-faster until he let go of the man's neck and exclaimed "DAMN YOU!" Before erupting a blazing aura of darkness around his body and speeding off at beyond light-speed past the planet's atmosphere, and Gravitus rubs his chin again after dispersing the aura around his body while grinning and saying "And thus begins the Elemental Overlord's swan song…"

Mew flies fast through the depths of space, leaving the Earth behind as a speck in his wake as he goes faster than he had ever gone before. He feels a lot of pressure against his body as he moves but doesn't care in the slightest, for he was already dealing with the pressure of losing the Earth if he were to fail. He flies as far as he could until the source of the light he saw on the planet was clear as day before him, at which point he keeps still and is awed by it's presence.

The power approaching the planet was incredibly large, eclipsing even Jupiter in size with it's circumference, and it was as bright and white as the moonlight of the full moon night sky, with flames as pure and bright as the sun wrapped around the beam in multiple spirals. Mew had to squint his eyelids a bit, but his body was more focused on the pure unbridled energy from his anger fueling his every move. Bravely moving in front of the center of the beam, Mew thrusts his two hands out and slams straight against the beam while applying all his strength to it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Mew screamed with all of his might as he pressed against the beam, which did everything in it's power to push Mew forward while continuing on it's destructive path towards the Earth. Mew is pushed through miles of space in a second, his arms stretched out beside him as his own body is forced to press against the front of the beam, his face widened in pure anger as he does so. "I WON'T LET GRAVITUS WIN! SO YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Mew screamed at the beam as it roared into his eardrums louder than he could speak.

The beam kept pushing him forward, and Mew just continued to use all of his strength to try and hold it at bay. But he was already as angry as he could be, and there was no longer anything else for him to pull his strength from. "NO! WE'VE COME TOO FAR FOR EVERYTHING TO BE UNDONE BY THIS BULLSHIT!" Mew exclaimed, and with one hard push of his arms he suddenly unleashed a shockwave of darkness across the front of the beam. He managed to push his arms in front of him again, unleashing another resounding shockwave through the beam.

He then holds his 'ground' against the beam, grunting as hard as he could as he actually manages to slow it down to a halt in a matter of seconds. But it was still an incredibly powerful beam, and Mew knew he wouldn't be able to hold it off for very long in his current position. But he was not going to give up, he didn't have the ability to do so when the planet he was born and raised on was threatened like this. He had to push himself to the absolute limit beyond what his body was capable of handling regardless of what would happen to him in the process.

All the while, Mew realized that he had basically left Kairi behind on the planet with Gravitus. It was a cruel decision no matter what he chose. Sacrifice the world for the one he wants to love, or sacrifice her for the world he loves. As the solar flames crackled in Mew's eardrums, he closed his eyelids and continued to focus on pushing the beam back, damning Gravitus for forcing him into these choices.

"Why? Why did it have to come down to this…?" Mew bemoaned in a saddened tone as his drive to push back the beam began to slow down, making it so he was pressed against the front of the beam once more and pushed faster and faster towards the Earth. Quickly realizing he was giving up, Mew shook his head and then pushed forward once more with both of his arms to keep the beam at bay, stating as bluntly as he could to himself "N-No! Don't give up yet! There's still a chance to stop this! I CAN'T let Gravitus win!"

By now Mew was starting to get very close to the moon, and if he allowed himself to give in anymore then it would be destroyed in an instant. The pressure rose higher in his blood and nerves, and if it wasn't for his power he would have collapsed in an instant. But it was clear that pushing his body to these limits was affecting his subconscious, for Mew began to see his life flashing before his eyes.

"Hrrrnghhh…No…" Mew stated, defying the presence of these memories flashing before him not out of contempt for what he saw, but because he stubbornly refused to let his life end at this moment even if it would come about due to him saving the world from being destroyed by this beam. For all the troubles he had to deal with, for every bit of bullcrap up until this point, Mew could counter it with an even fonder memory. He may have envied the people on Earth who were in love, but he did greatly enjoy the happiness and smiles that came from them whenever he would save them from natural disasters.

That was always the thing about his role in the universe. He may have suffered a lot in loneliness, he may have had a demon within his mind, but at the end of the day he stuck to being a hero, he didn't stop being anyone but himself. And for those reasons, he proclaimed to the beam with all of his might "I am going to make more of these precious memories! My story is not going to end here! Now you're in my way of defeating Gravitus, so it's time for you to DISAPPEAR!"

Widening his eyes and breaking all possible limits within his body, Mew revigorates himself by drawing on the very darkness of space itself to fuel his final maneuver against the beam. Drawing on this darkness, Mew spawns multiple limbs of darkness from his body, sending them out across the front of the beam until he had covered it in exactly one-thousand arms, each one digging into the raw energy with their ridged claws using the same strength Mew would utilize normally.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Mew screamed so hard that he could've possibly broken his lungs had he not stopped himself, but the effect of his efforts became clear rather quickly as all the arms he had spawned begin to crunch down the front of the beam into a much smaller form, waiting as all of the energy gathered to the front of the beam until a point was reached where there was nothing coming in from the back of it. Then the energy was compressed down into a sphere thanks to all the arms, with it all putting up a great deal of resistance even still, leading to the excess energy annihilating some of the arms.

But in the end, even the absolute power of this mighty beam was brought to an end before the face of Mew's strength and sheer determination, with his arms of darkness crunching it down all the way into oblivion. The very moment Mew had finished his job though, all the excess arms broke apart, leaving him with just the two extended from his physical body, though now he was leaning forward and panting in a very tired manner. At the very least though, Mew was glad to still be alive, though now he still had to worry about Gravitus once he went back to *SCHINK!*

Mew suddenly widened his eyes in utter shock and gasped for a couple seconds, with some intense pain riding through his entire body while he looks down to see a familiar scythe blade pierced right through the lower right part of his chest region. Blood was on the tip of the scythe, and the handle was sticking out off to the right of his body to show that the weapon had pierced through his back. The scythe was lodged in so perfectly that it hadn't hit a single vital organ, but the pain was so great that it might as well be the case.

In a few slow seconds, Mew watches as Gravitus slowly floats in front of him with a brimming grin on his face and his body vibrating a bit as he laughs internally at Mew's situation. Lifting his left hand up as he stops moving, Gravitus uses his powers to pull the handle of his scythe and by extension Mew's body right towards him. Gripping onto the handle of his scythe, Gravitus makes sure to keep it embedded into his body while he uses his other hand to grab him by his neck and lift him up, all the while draining Mew's energy and refueling himself with the help of his scythe.

"Hehehe…I must truly be honest here, little Overlord…I had expected you to perish in your attempt to destroy that energy beam. But this works just fine instead…You're almost out of energy, so you can't maintain an ethereal form to avoid my gravity powers anymore. And now we've reached the inevitable conclusion to this charade of yours…For your defiance, death is all that awaits you." Gravitus says arrogantly, but Mew tries to fight through the pain and grab onto the man's robotic arm with both of his hands, but as he does so the man just grins some more and says "Do not despair…You won't die forgotten."

With a coy expression, Gravitus lifted his head up slightly and told Mew in a mocking manner "You'll become a part of my eternal legacy of peace…As an example of what happens to any evil souls who try to bring disorder to the universe. You lived as a hero, but you'll die being remembered as the villain…But don't worry, I shall give you a few more moments of life, just so your demise can be used to drain every last bit of resistance out of my daughter's body. Now then…Off you go, little Overlord."

Gravitus wrenched his scythe right out from the back of Mew's body, swinging it out beside him to let the blood float out into the depths of space, and before his neck is let go of Mew quietly but bluntly stated to Gravitus "Fuck you…This just proves that your peace is never going to be a just one…" Gravitus loosened his grip around Mew's neck and while activating his gravity powers he pointed out "History is written by the winners…A human, especially you, should know this above all else. Such a shame that death never robs one of their ignorance…"

With his powers activated, Gravitus wrapped Mew's body in his aura and left him with those final words before he thrust his hand out, forcing Mew to hurtle through the depths of space at a very rapid pace, his arms and legs stretched out like he was a lifeless puppet, and he could do nothing but be under the mercy of Gravitus' control. He was pushed through space so fast that he did not even come close to burning up once he made it to the atmosphere of the Earth, and quickly he was pushed towards the Sages' Pyramid.

But instead of plowing him through the pyramid, Gravitus used his space related abilities to know when Mew was within range of the floor, and with Kairi suddenly noticing Mew's reappearance it was at that moment when Gravitus pulled on the front of Mew's body and stopped him in place, and a loud and painful snap came from Mew's back as he was lurched forward through the air. At that very point in time, the darkness surrounding Mew's body snaps away from existence, and Gravitus drops his gravity powers and lets him plop right down onto the floor, his spine broken and his energy wasted.

Kairi, with no idea as to what had happened since Mew left the planet to stop Gravitus' secret attack, just saw Mew's lifeless on the body and immediately got a look of devastation on her face as she screamed out his name and then ran right over to him, kneeling down in front of his body and looking straight into his barely open eyes as his body was twitching a bit from all the pain flowing through him. Blood trickled out of Mew's mouth on both sides, and he coughed a couple times while Kairi laid her hands down on both sides of his body and hovered over him.

"M-Mew…? Say something, anything!" Kairi exclaimed, not wanting to touch Mew's body in fear of hurting him any further. The boy did not respond to her words at first, bringing a look of despair to her face because of that as she exclaimed "No…No…NO! Don't do this…You can't be dead! Gravitus is still alive and you're the only one who can stop him! Please Mew…Wake up and say something!" "He is on his way to death's door, my dear daughter. The only 'waking up' he shall be doing is when his soul arrives in Hell." Gravitus stated, having made his swift return to the planet and put himself floating directly above the pyramid once more.

With his return to the planet, the storm clouds came back, and he cast lightning across the atmosphere to further increase the effectiveness of the despair Kairi was currently experiencing. Kairi quickly turned her head around to face Gravitus and was all too prepared to charge at him as she exclaimed "YOU GODDAMN BAS-" but before she finished her sentence Gravitus swung his right hand out and used his powers to grab Kairi's body, shutting her mouth instantly and forcing her to slowly turn back around to face Mew's fallen body.

"I am done playing games, my dear…I have wasted enough time on distractions and was forced to use my secret weapon against that stubborn boyfriend of yours. You are going to say your farewells to him, and once that is over with you shall come to me and accept your place within my metallic body…And I will then have you accept the Neo Drive, just as the plan always should have gone from the beginning. There will be no more distractions, no more detours…Nothing but my rightful ascension shall occur from here on out, and I will finally surpass the Ten Sages, the Elemental Overlord, and the Dark King in order to create everlasting peace throughout the universe!"

Gravitus finished his claim off by dropping his grip on Kairi's body with his powers, and she let out a painful gasp to catch her breath now that she could open her mouth again. The immediate thing she said afterwards was a tearful sounding "D-Damn it…D-Damn him…He's going to take everything away…" As tears began to well up in Kairi's eyes, Mew finally spoke again, but not before preceding his words with a couple more coughs. "K-Kairi…Please…Listen to me…" He said calmly.

As Kairi's tears trickled down onto Mew's shirt, she quieted down for a moment minus a couple sniffles and listened in as Mew said to her "I-I…I really want to apologize to you Kairi…" Kairi shook her head and said "No! Don't say that! You're going to make it through this! You have to make it through this!" Mew responded by smiling a bit despite more blood leaking through the sides of his mouth, leading to him then saying to Kairi "Hehehe…You don't have to be concerned…about me…"

"Of course I do, y-you idiot! I don't want to lose anything else! Are you going to let Gravitus get away with his injustices? I know you Mew…You aren't one to give up!" Kairi pointed out bluntly to get Mew to stop his line of speaking, but Mew just continued on without being impeded, telling her the honest truth with a melancholy tone "Hehehe…Yeah I suppose that's true, but my body c-can only go so far…I used up most of my energy in Dark Form to repel the beam…And Gravitus…Just broke my spine…Of course I still want to kill Gravitus with all of my heart…But the reality of the situation is that it's impossible for me to stand up…Let alone fight…"

Mew grinned a bit and said "So hey…Can I get back to what I saying before? …A-About my apology and such?" Kairi shook her head again for a few seconds, in complete denial of the fact that Mew could possibly be dying. Mew murmurs out "Please Kairi…Don't make this any harder for me…I only have so much time left…" While still crying, Kairi stopped shaking her head and listened in to what Mew said next, and with his grin still present he told her "I-I've been a horrible person this whole time…I mistreated you with all the lies I had been keeping to myself…"

"N-No…No you weren't…" Kairi whispered out, but Mew firmed his eyebrows downward and stated while lifting his head up an inch off the ground "Stop it Kairi…I know you're sad, but you have to stay calm and listen to me…This is for…your own good…" Kairi nodded her head after a momentary pause, followed by Mew telling her "Thanks…Heh…You know, I remember the look on your face when I saved you from Gravitus not too long ago…Were you surprised by my appearance, or the fact that I was alive?"

"B-Both…" Kairi stated, and this was followed up by Mew stating to her "That's the first thing I lied about…This entire time…I've had a demon called 'D.' residing within my subconscious…He's been threatening to possess my body for a couple years now, but I've barely been holding him back since the first time he managed to do so…I-I've always been concerned about getting close to others because of his presence, since all it would take is one wrong fit of anger and he'd kill anyone that was close to me…"

Mew grinned a bit and then said "B-But before you ask…I had Gravitus knock me out while I was in Light Form so I could get into my subconscious and force 'D.' to give me free use of his power for a time being…So that way I could fight Gravitus and use my anger freely to give myself the power necessary…to stop him…But I underestimated what Gravitus had up his sleeves…It's ok though, I did everything I had to, so I only have one other regret now…" "W-W-What…? What else do you regret?" Kairi inquired.

Mew slowly began to lift his left hand up, stating to Kairi as he twitched "I regret not being honest with you sooner about my feelings…When you called me out for trying to manipulate you into loving me…While the part about manipulating you wasn't true, I did actually have feelings for you at that point, but I was far too frightened of the consequences of admitting that while 'D.' is still in my subconscious…I was such a fool, a real dumbass…" Kairi shook her head and told Mew "No! Y-You weren't stupid…You were trying really hard to help me in your own way…"

"Heh…I think I went about things the wrong way, regardless of how much it helped you become a better person in the end…" Mew then closed his eyelids a bit and paused the raising of his arm, telling Kairi as he laughed as well as he could "Heheh…I got to be honest with you Kairi, I'm probably one of the most cowardly souls you could find on the planet…Imagine that if you would, that a man with god-like powers is capable of showing fear…"

"No…You're one of the bravest people I've ever known…" Kairi said to defy Mew's self-pity as best as she could, biting her upper lip in sadness as she shook her head a bit, followed by Mew grinning a bit and saying "Hahaha…You're misinterpreting my actions then. Sure I'm a coward…Because I'm scared of hurting those close to me if I mess up, I'm afraid that I will fail and lead my home planet to ruin, I am afraid of dying alone…So many fears within me, and yet I kept pressing on…And you know why?"

"…I think I do…" Kairi stated, followed by Mew nodding his head and remarking to her "Because to keep those fears at bay as best as I can…I fight to keep them from coming true. I fight as hard as I can, pushing my body past it's limits because at the end of the day, even if I break all of my limbs in a single battle, the reassurance that everyone has survived to live another day is enough to let me sleep peacefully at night…And I guess…I can have my final rest today knowing that the future of the Earth is in better hands…"

"You are not go-…W-Wait…What do you mean 'in better hands'?" Kairi was about to call Mew out for his deathly behavior, but was more taken aback by what Mew had said after everything else. With her eyes widened, Mew said to Kairi "I-I did my part in preventing the Earth from being destroyed by Gravitus…But now the rest is up to you Kairi…F-Follow your dreams Kairi…Stop Gravitus, and go visit the beautiful planet I've called my home…"

"H-How? How could I possibly stop Gravitus…I'm not as strong as you…" Kairi said, showing little confidence in her abilities, which is something Mew could understand her feeling in this situation, but nevertheless he had concocted the perfect words to say to her now "You're right…You aren't…Not yet…But the solution to our problems has been in front of us this entire time…" Subtly, Mew gestures out to the Neo Drive chamber with his right hand, and Kairi looked at for a moment before turning to Mew and saying "B-But you have to be worthy to use it…"

"You are…Trust me…I'd like to think I'm not a terrible judge of character…" Mew said, closing his eyelids a little more before remarking "What matters the most is that Gravitus not be allowed to succeed…I hate to throw this duty onto you Kairi…But please…Protect your people…Protect my planet…And promise me…That you'll start smiling more…" Mew's voice was becoming weaker and weaker, and Kairi closed her eyelids and started laughing a bit while her cheeks were soaked by the tears trickling down, and forcibly she put a smile on her face and said "I-I will!"

"Heh…You know Kairi…You look a lot better with your hair down like that…" Mew said with the utmost honesty in his voice, and Kairi responded by opening her eyelids a bit and brushing her tears away with one hand while remarking "Y-Yeah…I guess I'll be…Keeping it like this from now on…" The two awkwardly laugh for a couple moments, but then look into each other's eyes for a couple moments more. Then, without saying another word, Kairi leans forward over Mew's body, lining herself up well enough with his face before lowering her head down slowly, her arms trembling to support her weight as he does so.

She closes her eyelids and connects her lips with Mew's own, something Mew could not have possibly predicted in this situation as evidenced by the way he widened his eyes for a moment before lifting his head up to put some bit of effort into kissing her. The two move their heads around slowly and kiss for roughly ten seconds, with Kairi's tears still rolling down her cheeks as she does so. Once they were done, Kairi was the one who pulled away, leaving Mew with a tiny smile on his face as he lays his head back down on the ground.

Kairi smiles as well, but she knew her happiness was not to last. Mew's eyes suddenly widened as his chest pumped outward with one hard thrust, and with a heavy gasp of air he suddenly falls unconscious, his head laying on it's side as his arms go limp. Kairi slowly pulls her body back while hanging her head down, drawing out the last of the tears from her eyes as she whimpered and sniffled at Mew's death. But after she was done, she clenched her fingers so tightly against her palm that the fingernails could have dug into her skin and with a barely contained look of fury as her expression she turned her head and looked at the chamber holding the Neo Drive…

After a few more seconds have passed, Kairi rises up out of the Sages' Pyramid with her head hung a bit, her eyelids shut, and one hand crossed in front of her body so it rests atop her Aurian Drive bracelet. Once she was high up enough to be in line with Gravitus' body, the man grinned and shook from how he was chuckling, saying to Kairi as he extended his left hand out "At long last, this struggle is at an end…You've chosen wisely to stop resisting, my dear sweet daughter."

Kairi nodded her head and said "Yes…You're right…I'm done…" Gravitus grinned a little more and was about to say something in an arrogant tone, but then Kairi lifted her head up confidently and said with a firm expression on her face "I'm done letting you have your way. This was the last straw, Gravitus!" Because of Kairi's defiant stance, Gravitus quickly burst into a quiet fit of laughter for a good few seconds before telling her "It says a lot about how good of a mood I am in that I would be humored by this naivety you're showing me."

"You're always so sure that everything is in the palm of your hand, that we're all just tools to be used for your plans of 'peace'…You keep stepping on all of those beneath you, robbing hundreds, even thousands of their hopes and dreams with little to no care! You are no leader…You're not a man with good intentions…You're just a bully, a spoiled child and nothing else!" Kairi exclaimed with all of her fury, and Gravitus suddenly drew away his humored expression away and replaced it with one of slight annoyance before he remarked "…Hmph, so the little Overlord instilled a little more words of defiance in that stubborn mind of yours, daughter…"

"HIS NAME WAS MEW! And he was more of a man than you could ever hope to be…" Kairi exclaimed with widened eyes, followed by Gravitus stating while rubbing his chin "A man who is dead beneath my feet is simply that…A dead man. Your opinion of him hardly matters to me." Kairi closed her eyelids and sighed, shaking her head back and forth slowly as she said "I have no reason to pity you Gravitus…You're beyond salvation."

"I was never one to seek out what was never needed…Perhaps you still do not seem to understand that I do what is NECESSARY for the sake of the universe! Do you truly wish to damn the progress of peace with your petty squabbling, daughter?" Gravitus stated, followed by Kairi opening her eyelids slowly and stating "I'm done with your games Gravitus. You've taken my people's freedom, you've taken my mother's peace and sanity, and you've taken Mew's life! Now it's time to turn the tables…Now…I'm going to take from you the two things you pride so much…Your dream, and your life!"

Kairi suddenly raised her hand away from her bracelet and revealed that a rainbow-colored stone had attached itself to it, with Gravitus widening his eyes in surprise as he recognizes the stone as what else but the Neo Drive itself. "NO!" Gravitus exclaimed, raising his voice the loudest he possibly could before thrusting his left hand up and preparing to use his powers to stop Kairi while she exclaimed "NEO DRIVE, ACTIVATE!" and slammed her hand down on top of the legendary Aurian Drive.

Gravitus' aura wrapped around Kairi's body the moment she touched the stone, and immediately the aura is repelled away by a burst of rainbow-colored aura that emerges from the stone and starts enveloping itself around Kairi's body. Gravitus swings his arms out as the pressure of the Neo Drive's aura blows heavy winds throughout the sky, stating in sheer disbelief "This is impossible! There's no way you could have claimed it while I was watching! U-Unless…The Neo Drive responded to your worthiness through your subconscious?! No! I will not let this stand!"

Gravitus desperately fires out spheres of gravity from his aura to try and prevent the inevitable, but as Kairi holds out against the power of the Neo Drive the rainbow aura spreads out to form two beautiful, glistening wings that flap in front of her body and disintegrate the spheres with the utmost ease. Kairi stayed absolutely calm throughout this entire process, her hair and shirt fluttering about from the sheer power of the Neo Drive while her wings of aura go back to extending past the sides of her body, stretching for ten feet out individually.

"Damn it…DAMN IT!" Gravitus cursed what was happening before him, doing nothing but proving Kairi's words right with his bitter, spoiled tone. As the last act of the Neo Drive's activation, it shoots out a thin beam of rainbow light towards the sky, striking Gravitus' storm clouds and causing them to immediately split away for miles on end, replacing it with a bright and gorgeous array of northern lights.

Kairi calmly floated there in place with her hand laid atop the Neo Drive for a few more seconds before slowly pulling her hand away. She opened her eyes, her irises having taken on a translucent rainbow coloring with a glitter similar to what her mother had in them, and looked at the aura that had wrapped around her body. Save for her eyes, nothing else about her physical appearance had changed, and her wings of aura made a quiet noise as they slowly flapped through the air.

Kairi could feel all of this power within her body…It was incredible, nothing like she had ever felt before and probably would never feel again. The power was warm, and in light of Mew's death she could only feel comfort in this warmth. But she knew all too well how to make herself feel even better, in a way that would do nothing but bring about vengeance for all of the troubles caused for her people. Lifting her head up while clenching her right hand into a fist slightly, Kairi looked straight at Gravitus and saw something that was never on his face before, and that was a few drops of pure sweat.

Kairi laid her left hand into her pants' pocket and leaned back against the air, focusing all she could on Gravitus as the man grit his teeth and looked completely devastated by the fact that Kairi had obtained the Neo Drive. Kairi raised her right pointer finger at Gravitus and told him "What was it you said before? That the Neo Drive is capable of letting the user utilize whatever Aurian Drives they have seen? Well there's eight Aurian Drives I've seen today from eight different people, last I checked…And how many of those do you think I'm going to use against you, Gravitus?"

Gravitus, at a breaking point so great that it was a miracle that he didn't break his scythe in two in rage, exclaimed while flaring his aura up to full power "Impudent CHILD! Do you think this changes ANYTHING?! I am the strongest of all Aurians, and if I can best the likes of the Elemental Overlord then a child wielding the power of the Neo Drive will be just as simple to defeat! YOU HAVE ONLY DELAYED THE INEVITABLE!" Kairi widened her eyes and exclaimed "Wrong! For my people, my mother, the Planetary Aurians, this planet, and for Mew…Your tyranny ends NOW, Gravitus!"

_Next Time: I Do This For You_


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24: Gravitus Final Phase: A New Me, a New Beginning…**

"You're right…this will end now…WHEN I CLAIM WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!" Gravitus exclaimed with all of his furious might, leaping through the air at high speeds with his scythe swung behind his head in both hands. Kairi stood absolutely still without changing her calm expression and created a rounded wall in front of her body made of thin aura and watched as Gravitus swung the blade of his scythe against it as hard as he possibly could, unleashing a thick, sharp swathe of crescent aura against the barrier.

The collision of energies created a cascade of white sparks across the sky as Gravitus' attack grinded against the barrier to try and break it down, but in a matter of seconds even with him pushing all of his effort into breaking through Gravitus watches as his aura shatters away into nothing, releasing a shockwave that pushes the man back ten feet while he clenched his fingers together tightly and grit his teeth, growling very audibly before he dashed at Kairi again and tried to absorb the aura of the barrier with a one-handed swing of his scythe.

But it failed spectacularly, as Gravitus couldn't even get one iota of aura away. He widened his eyes and exclaimed "Damn it…Damn it!" Kairi dropped her barrier and lifted her right hand up, summoning forth a wavy triangular sword of solid rainbow aura by using her thoughts to create it, followed by it impaling right through the center of Gravitus' chest and the surrounding aura with ease. Gravitus actually paused and gagged in pain, but before he could lift his left hand up Kairi summoned forth about a dozen more swords of aura with a flap of her wings and made them all impale through different parts of Gravitus' body, with the one through his left shoulder holding his arm back perfectly.

Gravitus was not going to be stalled this easily though, and after gasping a bit he grit his teeth back up and poured all of his aura into his metallic body to strength it's defensive power to the point that it was tough enough to shattered all of the swords impaled into his body minus the one connected to Kairi's arm. But he didn't have to worry about that one for much longer as Kairi pulled back on her arm and drew the sword out, converting the aura into the shape of a fist as a glowing symbol representing two fists crossed together appeared within her pupils.

Kairi then thrust her fist forward with all of her might towards Gravitus' head, and the man just barely had time to move to the left before Kairi's fist hit him straight on. However, the aura brushed the side of Gravitus' cheek, applying half of the force of Kairi's attack to his head and causing his entire body to be forcibly turned around multiple times and knocked away. Gravitus recovers after a couple seconds while using his aura to repair the marks in his body, all the while Kairi spent that time getting right in front of him with a symbol of a glowing cloud of gas appearing within her pupils.

Kairi thrusts both of her hands out and sends forth a plume of aura with some gases within them, making it strike Gravitus' right in the face with a tiny bit of force put within to make his head reel back a little. This is then followed by Gravitus' vision being blurred and his face sweating from the effects of the gas, and while he struggled against this while raising a hand to his face he stated "These little parlor tricks won't allow you to defeat me!"

Sure enough, the one thing that the power of the Neo Drive could not mask was the fact that the aura could be sensed. Gravitus swung his scythe behind his body and predicted Kairi's movements, using his scythe's blade as a way to launch a swift but thin shot of aura straight at Kairi's body. Kairi swerved to the side as the attack nicked through a part of her right wing, looking not even the least bit concerned as she then lifted her right hand up beside her face before creating another blade and thrusting it right towards Gravitus' back.

The man uses his scythe blade to just barely block Kairi's attack at the tip, and Kairi's aura grinds away just a tiny, tiny bit as sparks fly between the point of collision. Gravitus slowly turns his body around while keeping his scythe in the same general position, and once he was facing Kairi Gravitus swung his left hand out and tried to fire off a shockwave of gravity to repel Kairi away from him. However, in a swift second, Kairi swung her aura sword to the right and chopped Gravitus' metallic hand clean off from the rest of his body, disrupting his attack and distracting the man enough for Kairi to try and swing the sword right at the man's head.

But even now, the spherical barrier protects Gravitus' head from all harm, only this time around Kairi's sword managed to dig one centimeter into the aura before she pulled back on it and flew a few feet backwards. She finally decided to pull her left hand from her pants' pocket and hold both of her palms towards Gravitus' cut-off hand, a glowing symbol representing a containment field around a person appearing in her pupils before she split some aura away from her body and had it wrap around the hand in a thick bubble.

Kairi then swung her right hand out to send the bubble and the hand at least a good few miles away from the battlefield, keeping Gravitus from reattaching it with the rest of his body for the time being. His offensive options decreased, Gravitus growled a little and then swung his scythe out in an instant, sending a large wave of aura at Kairi to still try and affect her in some form, but Kairi just stood still and had a symbol of a reflective shield bouncing some lines representing projectiles before a person appear within her pupils.

This led to her aura deflecting Gravitus' attack right back at him the moment it connected, but Gravitus then surprised Kairi a bit by charging right through his own attack to shatter it without being the least bit affected as he then swung his scythe down with all of his might. But with him only able to use one arm to attack, he couldn't attack as hard as he could, and thus Kairi was able to lift her right arm up and use her aura blade to repel Gravitus' scythe by hitting the bottom of it's blade.

As Gravitus stumbles back a little bit from the recoil of his attack failing, Kairi makes a symbol of a frozen wasteland appear in her pupils before she flew right up at Gravitus and swung her left wing out to wrap it around the man's scythe and hand. With the power of an absolute zero frost within the aura, Kairi forces a thick ice to envelop the entirety of Gravitus' scythe and right hand, causing Gravitus' eyes to widen as he finds himself unable to budge the arm with his own might. Kairi backs off and prepares to break the right hand off from the rest of the body by combing Jupiter's drive power with her punch, but the man then exclaimed "ENOUGH!"

This was followed by him exerting a heavy amount of his power through his right arm to shatter the ice surrounding it, creating a burst of aura through the sky as he then swung his broken left limb out and sent forth a series of gravity orbs through the air to go to where his right hand was, overwhelming the sphere containing it with a heavy amount of gravity energy as he swung his scythe out to block Kairi's punch and said simultaneously "I am NOT going to be made a mockery of like this!"

After shattering the shield surrounding his left hand, Gravitus draws it back to his body to reattach it, and then raised said hand into the air while exclaiming "You think I shall be bested by you, my disobedient daughter?! Perhaps you need to understand what I am capable of! Perhaps you need to be reminded of the reason you feared me before!" Gravitus then drew his aura to the depths of space itself, tugging on chunks of the moon itself from beyond the sight of anyone while Kairi just laid a hand into her pants pocket and didn't even flinch as Gravitus quickly brought down four chunks of grey-white rock around his body, all of them covered by his aura.

"I can affect the moon, the sun, the very stars in the sky itself! I could pummel this planet with asteroids if I so wanted to! Do you wish to test me?!" Gravitus exclaimed, his tone become slowly more unhinged as his face expressed the utter madness of his broken goals. Kairi closed her eyelids for a moment and said "You just don't get it, Gravitus…" Kairi opens her eyes while holding her right hand up, her pupils showing a collapsing burst of energy glowing, and it was clear just what drive she was using as she said "I'm not going to let myself get scared anymore!"

Kairi then overrides Gravitus' aura around the moon rocks with her own and uses her gravity manipulation to push the rocks towards the man's body. Gravitus widened his eyes as he saw this happened, and quickly swung his elbows out to create a thick barrier around his body to hold back the moon rocks, grinding away at their structure as Kairi spins them around to try and drill away at Gravitus' own aura. All the while Gravitus stated "T-This is my own Aurian Drive you're using against me! How dare you!"

"This is just your karma catching up with you, Gravitus…Accept it!" Kairi exclaimed, and as Gravitus continued to feel the pressure of the moon rocks grinding against his body he eventually got so pent up with frustration that he used up quite a bit of aura to unleash an explosion powerful enough to overwhelm Kairi's aura and disintegrate the moon rocks. Kairi was also pushed backwards a little bit, with her grunting momentarily in surprise at the fact that even under all of this pressure, even after all Mew had done to him, Gravitus still had all of this aura within his body to utilize as he pleased.

Gravitus then flew right at Kairi and swung his left fist forward, using sheer brutality to strike at her body with his fist wrapped in aura. Kairi knew better then to try and match the man's strength head-on, so instead she ducked under the punch and made a symbol of fire and ice appear in her pupils before she created another sword of aura made of pure orange-red and ice-blue colors and sliced right through the center of Gravitus' body horizontally with the power of pure heat. The power of the cold temperature solidified the melted metal in an instant afterwards, and Kairi then brought her sword back to the middle of his split body and unleashed a burst of aura from her sword that moved the two halves away.

Gravitus' legs crashed down against the pyramid roof while the upper half went tumbling higher into the sky, with Gravitus stabilizing himself in a matter of seconds and then swinging his arms down to pull his legs back up while stating "I am stronger than all Planetary Aurians combined! Do you think using their powers will allow you to best me?!" Kairi responded while calmly closing her eyelids and folding her arms into her pockets, hiding away the symbol of one of her own Aurian Drives within her pupils as she said "He's all yours, friend…"

Splitting away from the back of her body was a tiger made of aura, one with similar wings on it's back as that of it's owner, and the tiger flew swiftly through the sky in pursuit of Gravitus' rising legs, chomping down onto them through the aura and pulling down against the resistance of Gravitus' power. But then Gravitus is struck through the back with three large bear claws made of aura, with him looking behind himself to see said gargantuan bear of aura swiftly dragging him down through the air until he was directly in front of Kairi, all the while roaring in anger at the man for his crimes.

Once Gravitus' upper half was in front of Kairi, she opened her eyelids and drew her blade out diagonally across the front of her face, remarking to the man "If this body is what allows you to protect your head…" She performs a couple swift cuts below the man's neck, slicing the upper body apart so it separates itself from the head. With Gravitus' head then grabbed in the palm of the aura bear, Kairi pulls back on her sword and prepared to thrust it forward while saying "Then there's nothing protecting you now!":

With no hesitation in her body, Kairi thrust the blade forward to finish Gravitus off, but a man as persistent and calculating as Gravitus could not so easily be bested or outwitted, even as his mind fills with panic. Taking his gravity powers, Gravitus commands the split pieces of his upper body to gather directly in front of him and crunch against Kairi's blade and hand to stop it from advancing any further for the moment. But all Kairi had to do was think just a little bit to make the blade extend out past the cracks in this structure, so Gravitus had to act fast to save himself from this desperate situation.

Pulling his scythe free from the metal, Gravitus quickly fills it with his aura and swings it at the arm of the bear to cut it off and give him just enough time to fly his head away along with the crumpled metal he had used around Kairi's sword. He quickly fixed the metal up with his powers and reattached his head to the top of it, then grabbed hold of his scythe and went straight for the aura tiger, who was dismantling the lower body all this time. With one swift stroke of his scythe, Gravitus split the head and claws off of this beast and quickly used his powers to bring the lower body back to him and fit it all perfectly back together.

But after he did this, he snarled, realizing that Kairi had put up no resistance as he allowed him to reassemble his body. Gravitus then turned around and saw as Kairi dispelled the aura creatures while holding her hands in her pockets and still looking absolutely calm. Gravitus flew up and swung his scythe out at her, but she just casually drew a hand out from her pockets and summoned forth a sword of aura to block it, all the while Gravitus exclaimed "Damn you…What happened to your anger?! Show me your rage, child!"

"Honestly, I've already used up all of my anger. Right now…Watching the monster I hated and feared so much breaking down and humiliating himself while I use the very power he spent two-thousand years trying to claim…It's been a pretty good stress reliever." Kairi said with merry nonchalance, giving Gravitus a taunting giggle and smile afterwards much to the man's anger. Gravitus quickly pulls back and held his left hand out beside his body, panting a little bit before breaking into laughter that lasted for ten seconds straight.

He then surrounded his whole body in a thick aura and stated "Arrogant child, you assume too much. I have many tricks up my sleeve…And I will not be bested while every one of them still remain!" Gravitus then slammed the bottom of his scythe's staff against the air beside his feet, forming a barrier around his body as he suddenly creates an incredible pressure across all of Sancturia, forcing all the on-looking Aurians onto their knees as he proclaims "I have been the God of the Aurians for two-thousand years! I have done nothing but want peace for the universe with my people as the heralds."

Grabbing whatever aura he needed from the Aurians down below, Gravitus dragged it up and began to swirl it around Kairi's body in a barely contained spiral storm of multiple colors, claiming as he does so "And now you shall face the full payment of your insurgency through the wrath of your own people, including your damned mother!" Gravitus, with a look of complete and utter madness on his face, grit his teeth and clenched the sparks of black aura within the palm of his hand while proclaiming "Begone! Gravitational Nova!"

All the aura Gravitus had brought forth then collapsed into a sphere around Kairi's body, expanding outward with it's own mighty gravitational pull that drags in the roof of the pyramid and destroys it before it explodes in a blaze of light so powerful that all the Aurians down below had to look away before being blinded, while Gravitus just looks on without a care and laughs maniacally. But as the light faded away, Kairi shot through it with her body barely harmed, ripping through the center of Gravitus' body with one quick thrust of her sword before he could even realize she had survived.

As Kairi floats upright behind the man, Gravitus swung his body around and exclaimed "DAMN IT!" with his eyes so widen in anger as he prepared to swing his scythe at Kairi despite knowing that it was all useless by now. Kairi casually turned around and used her other arm to repel Gravitus' attack with ease, not even bothering with a sword extension as she then held both of her hands out and used Uranus' drive power to release a gigantic blast of frost aura that covered Gravitus' entire body and sealed him up in ice for a moment.

Kairi then switched off to Jupiter's drive power and punched right through the center of the ice block, breaking Gravitus free and punching a hole right through the two halves of his split body with the aura's effect. Kairi then avoided another attack by Gravitus and got on the other side of him, taking a note from Neptune's book by snapping her fingers and using her aura to bombard Gravitus' entire body with a large beam from above, the man roaring as it overwhelms him and makes him barely able to put his body back together.

Kairi then turned around and summoned forth two blades made of the temperatures of hot and cold, slicing an "X" through Gravitus' body as she crosses beside him, followed up by her turning around again and binding Gravitus' scythe in place with Saturn's drive power, followed by using Venus' power to create fists containing black gas that burn holes into Gravitus' body with each punch as he desperately tries to hold himself together with his aura, and he was completely unable to put up any resistance.

As Gravitus shattered apart the ice surrounding his scythe, Kairi commented "I've been using Mars' power most of this battle to get you acting up Gravitus, and I bet you never even noticed." "Of course I would not notice that weakling's power!" Gravitus exclaimed as he brought his scythe down again, but Kairi raised her hands up and created a solid katana of aura that she grasped in both hands while summoning forth a rather familiar looking barrier around her body to block Gravitus' attack, saying to him as she does so "As I've learned, it's not about having power…It's about knowing how to use it."

As the symbol of a nature forest appears in her pupils, Kairi exclaimed "Fragrance's Riposte!" and the barrier around her shattered and struck Gravitus with all their shards. Time then frozen for all but Kairi as she used her katana to perform the exact same cuts Earth/Gabriel did against Mew, only this time it was Gravitus who was the target of the attack. Once the kanji for 'spring' had been made with her attacks, Kairi pretended to sheath her katana, watching behind her as the kanji burst forth in an array of light that blew apart most of Gravitus' body across the sky, leaving only his head and arms close to their original location as he looked dumbstruck by what just happened.

Kairi then backflipped over Gravitus and floated a good few feet away from him, watching as the man reassembled himself to the best of his ability. But by the time Gravitus had put himself back together, there was something a little off with his body. There were still a few holes and scars within his armor, and the man began to pant heavily as though he barely had any energy left to use. "No…No…No!" Gravitus slowly brought himself to exclaim in regards to what he thought was an impossibility.

"You've started to reach your limit Gravitus. I can tell just how much aura you have left available in your body…" Kairi stated calmly, with Gravitus lifting his head up and exclaiming in defiance "I have no limits! My aura is unlimited!" Kairi glared at him and said "Then what would be the point of you draining aura from others with your scythe if you didn't need to refill? Everyone has their limits when it comes to their aura Gravitus. Even you. Face it…It's over now."

"No…No no no…It's not over, it can't possibly be over! I have worked too hard for two-thousand years for my ambitions to just end like this! Damn you…DAMN YOU!" Gravitus exclaims, thrusting his right hand to try and use his gravity powers on Kairi's body, but she just has to sit still and watch as the man does nothing but waste more of his aura. Shaking her head, Kairi stated "Even if you had all of your aura from the start, all that would've changed is that it would've take me longer to defeat you. All this time Gravitus, you've been the one thing my people have been for the past generations…Powerless."

Gravitus thrusts his hand back and then starts laughing a bit, his face grinning in a maddened manner before he said "Y-You think this changes anything? I still cannot be killed, arrogant daughter of mine! So what do you plan on doing to me? Throw me in some Aurian jail to rot the rest of eternity away?" Kairi looked Gravitus straight in the eyes and said "I do plan to kill you. You aren't as immortal as you claim you are, otherwise you wouldn't need to keep protecting your head like this. But first, there's something you're going to tell me…"

"T-Tell you? What could you possibly want from me?!" Gravitus exclaimed in confusion, and Kairi brandished right hand pointer finger up and said "My sister, Shina Aurora…What did you do to her?!" After hearing this accusation, Gravitus paused for a moment and gathered his thoughts, and all of a sudden his insanity went away as he grinned brightly and slowly chuckled, the volume of it increasing in a short span of time until Kairi said "What's so funny?"

"Shina Aurora…Yes…I remember her…She's your older sister, isn't she? Hehehe…So you think I did something to her, is that it? Well I hate to disappoint you, but you are wasting your time." Gravitus said, and Kairi glared at him while grumbling internally until he commented "I know all too well that she left two years ago…But I saw no reason to stop her from leaving the planet." Kairi widened her eyes briefly in shock that Shina had left the planet, leading her to demand from Gravitus "Then where did she go?!"

"Hahaha…Maybe I know, maybe I don't…Perhaps she's not even alive anymore either. Why don't you use your newfound power to try and find her? Oh wait…The Neo Drive doesn't amplify one's ability to sense other Aurians across the galaxy…HAHAHAAH!" Gravitus relished the fact that Kairi could not find the answer to Shina's whereabouts through him, but instead of reacting in concern Kairi closed her eyelids and said "So Shina's somewhere out there still…That's all I need to know."

Gravitus immediately stopped laughing and looked at Kairi in confusion, and she slowly began to raise her right hand up into the air while aura streamed through her arm and bracelet to collapse into a sphere above her palm. The northern lights in the sky radiate brightly in reaction to Kairi's power, pouring their own energies into the sphere to give with a swirling radiance, and Gravitus roared as he rushed right at Kairi to stop her out of futility. "…Farewell, monster…" Is all Kairi whispered before she lowered her hand and prepared to release all of the energy within the sphere.

"Banishing…RADIANCE!" She exclaimed, and all at once Gravitus is consumed by an immeasurable and bright cone of rainbow aura. Gravitus tries to put up a resistance with whatever aura he had left in his body, surrounding himself with a thick armor of aura while grunting with all of his might, but his armor quickly began to crack apart under the pressure of the Neo Drive's raw power. He was pushed back regardless of how much he tried to resist, and his metallic body began to be peeled and cracked apart slowly. Kairi just floated there and kept pressing on, with Gravitus' last act of defiance that she sees is for him to swing his right arm out past the top of the cone before he is consumed entirely by the aura, screaming in complete agony as he's dragged away far off from not just the pyramid, but the very atmosphere of the planet itself.

Kairi did not know if the man had been sent far off into the depths of space or had been disintegrated entirely, but the fact that she could feel his metallic body being broken down suggested the latter in her mind. Slowly dropping her attack, Kairi lowers her arm beside herself and looks to be exuding a little sweat from her head, and with her heart pumping she lets out a very well-deserved sigh of relief and quickly curls her lips into a smile. "Heh…Hehe…" She laughed joyously when the realization came to her that Gravitus was gone.

"It's over…Hahaha…I can't believe it, it's finally over!" Kairi exclaimed happily, pumping her fists towards the sky and leaping on the air itself a couple times in celebration as the sky brightens up, devoid of the northern lights or the storm clouds Gravitus had created. There was nothing but bright sunlight directly above the pyramid, and after leaping in celebration a couple times more Kairi stood still and lifted her head up to look up at the sun, covering the top of her eyes with one hand while smiling brightly and trying to hold back her tears as she said "I did it Shina…I did it for all of us…"

Dropping the power of the Neo Drive, Kairi looked down at the rainbow stone on her bracelet and said "Thank you…" in an honest but quiet tone. She then looked away from the bracelet down at the remains of the top floor of the pyramid, seeing that Mew's dead body was still lying on the ground undisturbed despite all the commotion that had occurred. With a solemn look on her face, Kairi held her right hand close to her chest and descended down to the floor close by Mew's body, looking down at him and remembering all of his efforts fondly as she closed her eyelids and remarked "I-I have to thank you the most Mew…I won't ever forget what you've done for me, and…And I'm sorry we couldn't have had something together."

Kairi then bows her head, realizing afterward that she would have to pick up the body and give it a proper burial. But as she took one step towards it, she heard a rather odd sound…Pausing to listen closely, she recognized the sound as a snore. It wasn't coming from her, and there was no one else in the immediate area that was alive…But if that was the case, then why would she hear this sound? Looking down at Mew's body, Kairi notices a very obvious motion in his chest area to represent breathing, and with her eyes widened in a dumbfounded manner she whispered out "…No way…"

Walking directly beside Mew's body, Kairi kneeled down and laid her arms atop her kneecaps, putting a blank expression on her face before she bluntly said to Mew "You really cannot be killed, can you?" Looking at Mew's expression, Kairi watches as he cracked a tiny smile for a moment, and then she decided to get him to respond by poking the side of his face with her right pointer finger a few times. A little bit of that is enough to get Mew to giggle and then open his eyelids, turning his head slowly to look at Kairi and say after letting out a yawn "…Oh hey…You're back. How're you doing?"

Kairi bluntly said "Don't give me that. You were never in any danger of dying this entire time, were you?" Mew nonchalantly replied while looking straight up "Well really, I don't know why Gravitus thought stabbing me without hitting any vital organs or breaking my spine would've been enough to stop me." "You had a heart attack!" Kairi pointed out in disbelief that he would neglect to mention such a detail.

Mew widened his eyes and said "Oh yeah, I guess I did do that. I kind of had no choice, I needed to be back into my subconscious to hold 'D.' off so he didn't take me over while you were fighting Gravitus. Just until my body could passively heal some of the wounds, anyways…Plus I had to pretend to be dead so Gravitus wouldn't use my body to make you waver." "We had a heartfelt conversation! You kissed me!" Kairi said, pointing at her lips with a flustered look on her face as she did so.

"…Well that wasn't my intention, I assure you. Besides, you ARE the one who initiated the kiss, Kairi." Mew countered, though he was smiling a bit at the whole thing, with Kairi just looking a little more flustered with her cheeks blushing as she told him "I thought you were dying! I-I just didn't want to…..You definitely tricked me!" Through her frustration, Mew reached out with his left hand and said "Oh does it really matter that much? You got the push you needed to finish Gravitus off, and we both know we love each other by now, so is there really any reason for you got get any angrier at me?"

Kairi paused for a moment to think about that, appearing calm at the situation before she grabbed Mew's left hand and suddenly applied a strong grip to it, grinning a mix between anger and happiness before she commented "You said you weren't going to lie to me anymore, Mew!" As Mew felt the bones in his hand crack a little, he said to Kairi "H-Hey now, this was done out of necessity. Y-You could argue it was a dick move I guess, but…But are you really going to break my left hand over this?"

Kairi loosened her grip a little and looked at Mew, noticing that he seemed genuinely sorry for the whole affair with his expression alone and thus choosing to let go of his hand, laying her own back atop her knees before stating "Yeah…I guess that'd just make me look like a bitch…Again." Kairi then plops onto her butt and crosses her legs, leaning back and letting out a tired sigh before Mew said to her "…This has been probably the most hectic twenty-four hours of my entire life."

"I'm not going to argue that…The same goes for me…" Kairi said, laying her hands beside her body as she looked towards the sky, commenting with a smile "But seeing the sun again…Knowing that Gravitus is gone forever…It makes all that stress and stuff worth it in the end, wouldn't you agree?" Mew grinned and said "I'd agree with the sun part if my vision wasn't still a little blurry…Heh…And my spine hasn't been fixed at all while I've been lying here."

"…Oh yeah, I guess that'd require a lot of energy to fix, wouldn't it?" Kairi inquired, and Mew nodded his head a little and said "Yeah…So Kairi, you probably should get me to your mother so she can heal me up…" Kairi was puzzled at the comment until Mew turned his head to look at her with a serious expression on his face before he remarked "Cause lets be real here…If I don't get healed up pretty soon, I'm probably going to be paralyzed from the waist down…"

"Oh…Oh! Yeah, I-I really should get you back to my mother in that case." Kairi said, scrambling to get back onto her feet so she could use her aura to create a small bed underneath Mew's body in order to safely lift him up off of the ground. Mew rested his arms beside his hips as best as he could, grunting in pain as he remarked "Probably would be best for you to take the quick route by flying down the sides of the pyramid."

"I know what I'm doing here." Kairi said as she flew up and carried Mew with her on the platform, going off the side of the pyramid's roof and slowly descended down to the bottom floor. As they made their way to the ground of Sancturia, Mew turned to look down and with a serious expression on his face found his thoughts lingering mostly on that mysterious energy Gravitus had brought forth from the depths of space, and he had but one plan in mind once he got to Auris' house…And that was question her on the purpose of that 'cage' the energy was released from.

_Next Time: The Victorious Cooldown_


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25: The End of a Two-Thousand Year Suffering**

Throughout the entirety of the battle between Kairi and Gravitus, Auris had been watching things from the bottom of the pyramid, seeing what most other Aurians could not thanks to her advanced knowledge of aura sensing. 'Til the very end of the battle, Auris could only hope that the worst would not come to pass, but every passing second that Gravitus did not acquire the Neo Drive lowering the odds that he would succeed in his goals. Eventually though, Auris saw the flash of bright aura coming from Kairi's final attack, and Auris herself could briefly hear the screams of Gravitus as he was sent hurtling away from the planet.

Auris' heart then skipped a beat at that moment, her eyes widening in surprise as she looked up towards the sky and saw the northern lights fade away. With mouth briefly agape, Auris heart continued to beat against her chest quite a few times in a row in happiness before she suddenly murmured out "I-It happened…Kairi managed to defeat Gravitus…" Auris had to take a moment to fully comprehend the implications of this event, thinking mostly about the events of two-thousand years past as they flushed across the expanse of her mind.

All that suffering for herself and her people, the lives of all of her children lost for the sake of Gravitus' machinations, and especially all that Kairi had to go through because her own mother was too weak to do enough for her sake. Now it was at an end, and Auris almost did not recognize the feeling of tears trickling down her cheeks at that very moment. She had held back tears for so long that this release of happiness felt so, so good in her mind because of it. Leaning forward a bit and wiping the tears with the lips of her sleeves, Auris whispered out for a moment "Thank you Kairi…Thank you Mew…I will never forget this moment."

But Auris knew she could not stand around for long, for the future she saw had Kairi carrying Mew down the side of the pyramid to take him back to her house for healing. To keep the future on the right path, Auris turned around and quickly sprinted across Sancturia with ease to make it back to her house while the rest of the Aurians slowly recovered from Gravitus draining some of their aura, all of them greatly confused by what had just happened above the Sages' Pyramid.

Auris knew that matter would have to be addressed soon enough, but that was not something Auris could deal with at this very moment. She opened the way to her house by pushing aside the curtain that acted as the door, and then made her way to the right couch and sat herself down. On the table were a few beer and wine bottles that Auris had downed since Mew and Kairi had left her house, and only one was still full. Auris moved her hand to that bottle and picked it up, looking at it for a few seconds with the intention to drink it before she smiled and closed her eyelids, remarking to herself "Perhaps I could stand to quit…"

She then put the bottle down on the table and crossed her hands together atop her legs, letting her happiness be her way of comfort for now until she had to react to Kairi returning to the house. It took a few minutes for that to happen, but when it does Auris turned to the door and saw the bed of aura Mew was laying on being carried in head-first, with Kairi walking in close behind while exclaiming "Mom! Are you here?!" Auris did not have to reply as Kairi walked in and saw her sitting on the couch, and with her barely hiding her smile Auris said to her daughter happily "You made it back…"

"Mom? Have you been at the house the entire time?" Kairi said in a surprised and somewhat disappointed tone, followed by Auris saying to her "Of course not. There was no way I was going to miss your victory against Gravitus, my dear." Kairi blinked her eyelids a couple of times before remembering that her mom had the ability to see the future, and then Kairi placed Mew on the other couch onto his back and dropped the aura bed so he could relax on the comfort of the couch. Mew groaned a bit in pain before he turned his head to look at Auris and said "I think Kairi has some things she wants to say to you…"

Auris nodded her head in acknowledgement of that, and she stood herself upright in front of the couch and looked at Kairi, telling her bluntly "If there's anything you want to get off your chest Kairi, then I'm willing to listen." Kairi clenched her right fist tightly and held it against her chest, lifting her head up slightly before she said "Mom, I have a lot to say…But I'm going to pull my punches a bit here cause I understand why you did some of the things you did. First things first…Did you actually willingly let Gravitus…Umm…You know?"

It was clearly a hard thing for Kairi to bring up even now, and Auris felt the same way in the matter as she closed her eyelids and crossed her hands in front of her waist before saying "Yes…I willingly had his children. I'm sorry to have never mentioned this before, but had I done so to you at a young age there was a high chance that you would have come to sympathize with your father more than loathe him…That's why I have never told any of my kids of that fact." Kairi nodded her head and then asked "Ok…Then why was I led to believe that the Planetary Aurians were a myth, especially when Gabriel was one the entire time?"

"Hmm…" Auris did not respond to that matter at first, until Kairi asked her with a bothered expression on her face "Did…Did Shina know that Gabriel was Aurian Earth?" "Y-Yes…Yes she did…" Auris remarked immediately afterwards with some hesitation in her voice, which then leads to her opening her eyelids and remarking "But I had no ill intentions in holding that truth from you, I promise. My powers always have allowed me to see all the futures that could happen, but never does it say what will happen in the timeline I'm present in. I can manipulate the probability of said events occurring if that is within my control, such as bringing Mew here to help out, but I cannot stop the other timelines from existing permanently."

"…What I'm trying to say here is that I only did not tell you about the Planetary Aurians because I wanted you to have a happy childhood, and for that Gabriel had to act as a trustworthy father figure to make up for Gravitus' lack of empathy." Auris finished her explanation, and Kairi then asked afterwards "I figured that was the case, but now there's one thing I have to know now that I've gone through this whole ordeal. You should know what I'm going to ask by now, mother…" Auris closed her eyelids again and remarked "It's about Shian, isn't it?"

"You can see all futures, you had to have known Shina had left the planet two years ago. Why did she leave?" Kairi bluntly inquired, and Auris replied by lifting her head up slightly and glancing to the right at Mew for just a brief second before saying "I have no idea what Shina was thinking when she left the planet. I was asleep when she had left Sancturia…" Mew pointed out afterwards while syncing his words with Kairi's perfectly "We know that's not the case."

Mew and Kairi looked at each other in surprise for a moment before Kairi looked back at Auris and said to her "Mom, do you not see this drive on my bracelet?" Kairi specifically points to the Angel Drive as she asks that, leading to Kairi then stating "I know for a fact that only you and Gravitus had access to the Aurian Drive Library, meaning that Shina could have only gotten this from you. She put this on the back of her gift to me because you must have told her that it would help me in the future. Please mom…What happened to Shina?"

"…Shina went out on her own mission to stop Gravitus. She went to find help off the planet and has been gone ever since. I wish I could tell you where she was now, but there are so many possibilities of where she could have gone, and even if I told you by the time you could reach her she will likely have moved to a new location." Auris explained in an honest tone of voice, and Mew commented afterwards "And you didn't send her after me cause you knew I wouldn't be ready to face Gravitus…So who did she go searching for?"

"…Anyone that could've helped, really." Auris said, followed by Kairi asking "And is she still alive?" Auris paused for a bit and looked at Mew once more before glancing back at her own daughter and telling her as she sees her heart beating against her chest a little in anticipation of some good news. Auris could lie to her daughter at this junction, and with her arms laid out beside her hips she said with a smile on her face "Yes. Shina is still alive. That's what the future has told me."

Kairi breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that news, while Mew had a little bit of suspicion regarding the information he was hearing. However, he wasn't going to speak his mind at the moment, as Kairi smiled brightly and stated "Then I will have to go and find her someday. Perhaps I will ask the Planetary Aurians for their assistance since they no longer have to serve Gravitus…But I need to bring Shina back here, and thank her for all of her efforts and kindness. Don't you agree, mom?"

Auris flinched for a moment outside of Mew and Kairi's line of sight and then said with a smile on her face "Yes dear, I can't wait for the day when my precious daughters are reunited. When that day comes, we will have to do something fun, like go down to the Earth and visit the beach or something…" Auris then decided to interrupt this tender moment by glancing fully at Mew and telling Kairi "But for now, I think we should probably heal Mew's spine. Kairi, please go to the basement and search for the healing vials I have stored in the back of the cellar. I'll perform the preparations for the medicine in the meantime."

Auris then moves around the table and kneels herself down beside Mew, extending her left hand out slowly to touch the back of his neck with a couple fingers, poking into the skin slightly with her nails and causing Mew to quiver a bit before she began to pour aura through the nerves in his body to ease them. Kairi nodded her head and said "I'll try and be as quick as I can. Hang in there Mew, mom's treatments can be pretty stressful." With that kindly warning, Kairi then ran for the kitchen, where the stairs to the basement were.

Auris waited a couple seconds and then looked at Mew, making sure that Kairi would not spring back into the room before she closed her eyelids and said "You have a few minutes now. Ask what you need to." Mew didn't bother reacting to Auris' prediction of his inquiries and instead immediately asked as he felt the aura pouring down his spine "Why did you tell Kairi that about Shina? You said yourself you don't know where she could be because of all the possibilities she could have taken, how can you even know that she's alive?"

"…You must promise not to tell Kairi this…" Auris remarks before opening her eyelids and telling Mew bluntly but quietly "At some point, I became unable to see what Shina's future would be like. It's not that she died so much as some powerful force is preventing me from seeing her future. I wish I could tell you anymore than that, and I wish I did not have to get Kairi's hopes up like that…But it could always be possible that Shina will return." "Fine, I can believe that…But there's something I KNOW you have information about. Well, two things exactly." Mew remarked.

As he raised his right pointer finger up and prepared to comment, Auris closed her eyelids again and said with a bit of a smile on her face "You wish to know what was up with that cage the energy came from. I may not be able to use my premonitions to see what people are thinking, but it's easy to predict their intentions from the way events occur." "…Didn't expect you to say that. Fine then, so what's the truth behind the cage? You can't tell me that it was simply a means of holding that energy within…" Mew said with a glare on his face.

"But that's simply the truth of the matter. The Elemental Overlord needed to store that energy within since it could not be disposed of otherwise, and he placed the cage and key far enough away from each other that if the energy were to be released it would not harm any planets…It's just an unfortunate twist of fate that Gravitus had set things up to utilize the energy against this Earth. I assure you though, if there was anything else within that cage, I'd certainly tell you. And even if I didn't, I'd give you a vow that any further keys would be much, much more complicated to activate than even the first one was." When Auris was done with her reassurance, Mew raised an eyebrow and said "The fact that you are being so specific really doesn't get rid of my suspicions, Auris."

"I seriously have no idea what you are talking about. All I'm doing is speaking the honest truth." Auris said with the utmost genuine tone of sincerity in her voice, followed by Mew squinting a bit as she continued to ease his muscles with her aura spread through the innards of his body. Mew then said "…Well, whatever…There's more important things for me to be concerned about at the present anyways. Tell me Auris, you know of the demon 'D.', correct? He had to have been around during the time of the original Overlord and the Dark King, after all…"

"…Of course he was. He was the Dark King's second-in-command, though only in the sense that he was the most powerful person the Dark King commanded. As such, when the Dark King's rebellion was quelled, 'D.' was considered the highest priority target to seal away, bound together by chains that were connected to the seven Elemental Temples the Overlord had set up. But considering the fact that the demon is inhabiting your mind…" Auris' is interrupted when Mew asks her "I don't care to know any of that. I just wanted a yes. What I really want to know is if it's possible to pull the demon free from my mind."

Auris could only offer a shake of her head, telling the disappointed Mew afterwards "A demon like him is almost impossible to purge from the minds of those he has chosen to inhabit. It is a great miracle that you have not been possessed by his power, so you should continue to do what you've been doing so far." "'Almost impossible'?" Mew inquired afterwards, and Auris explained why she said that with "'D.' has existed for an immeasurable amount of time. Any techniques that could have been used to purge the demon from one's mind have likely been lost or burned away."

"So I'll just have to bear it for now until I find something that can help me out with him. Fair enough, I can be patient." Mew said with a shrug of his shoulders, and he raised his right arm slightly and summoned forth his sword, looking at the triggers and noting the appearance of a black one on it now. "At least I can now use his power." He then commented on, with Auris looking at the handle of the sword in surprise and saying "Yes, but you must still remember not to get too angry."

Mew cracked a smile and dispelled his sword, remarking to Auris afterwards "I think that will be pretty hard from here on out. I'm genuinely happy for the first time in a long while, and I'm in love with your daughter." Auris grimaces a bit and remarks "Yes…Yes I did see that happen multiple times while observing the future." Mew grins a little bit and scratched the side of his head with his right hand while saying "So you know, as my future mother-in-law, perhaps you should be a little more open with whatever knowledge you have."

Auris then suddenly sent a jolt of aura through Mew's spine to make his heart skip a beat and cause him to flinch, remarking nonchalantly as he yelped "Oh dear, it seems you're making too many unnecessary movements and breaking the flow of aura. Perhaps you should stop that, starting with your mouth." Auris glared at Mew and made a good emphasis on that last part, but then quickly went back to having a more caring looking demeanor as she knew Kairi was seconds away from entering back into the room.

Sure enough, Kairi ran in with a glass vial containing some translucent light-blue aura mixture of sorts, and she quickly made it over to her mother and kneeled down beside her, giving her the vial and saying "You could stand to put these in a better spot mom." Auris took the vial and quickly popped the cork off of it, placing it into Mew's mouth to pour the mixture into his body while responding to Kairi's comment with "Perhaps I will later. Thank you for getting this for me though Kairi." As Mew takes some time to swallow the aura mixture, Auris explained "This vial contains both aura and some other materials for easy swallowing. It'll take a few seconds, but the mixture will blend in with the aura I pushed through your spine and nerves to heal whatever damage you have within your body…But only if you stay perfectly still."

Mew thought Auris said that just so he wouldn't say anything else for the moment, but at the same time he wasn't going to test that with some pointless show of defiance so he just shut up and let the aura heal his spine. Meanwhile, Kairi looked at Auris and said with a bit of nervousness present on her face "B-By the way mom…Ummm…There's something I wanted to say to you…" Before Kairi could voice herself due to prolonging her words out of hesitation for how difficult this was going to be to get across, but Auris had to look away along with Kairi when they heard some commotion coming from outside their house.

Auris slanted her brows and said "Oh right…Everyone else is probably wondering what the hell happened above the pyramid, especially after Gravitus made that bold move of pulling some of the aura from their bodies." Auris began to lift herself up, but Kairi then laid a hand on her right shoulder and said while lifting herself up "I'll do it. I think it's better if I tell them what happened." Kairi then went for the front door, with Auris having a worried expression on her face as she saw her leave the house. Mew looks at Auris upon feeling his spine healing up and said to her "This isn't going to end well if it's just her out there."

"…You healed up rather quickly. But yes, you have a point. I get that my daughter has learned a desire to help her people out, but she seems to have forgotten that they still hold a grudge against her." Auris commented on, and Mew shrugged his shoulders and said "Or it's more like she does know that and is trying her best to make amends for that now, even if she's going a little fast about it." The two of them paused for a moment, leading to Mew pulling himself up from off of the couch and standing up behind Auris, putting his hands in his pockets before he glanced at the back of her head and said "I'll help her out with defusing the situation."

As Mew made his way to the door, Auris advised him "Just be careful" and then stood upright, folding her arms together before she continued on to mention "You may have the best shot of handling this problem, but you can still screw up and make things worse. Just because Gravitus is no longer around doesn't mean a civil war could not break out between my people." "Put a little faith in me, we've gotten this far after all, right?" Mew said with a smile on his face before he exited through the front door rather casually.

Mew then turned his head around and was quickly surprised by just how many Aurians had gathered around the house. There were certainly at least a hundred-thousand of so Aurians visible from this spot alone. Kairi was standing beside Mew with her hands held up beside her head as she tried to voice herself to the Aurians as they all rambled on about the whole ordeal that happened today, with a lot of them throwing insults towards Kairi and confused inquires regarding what happened to the aura in their bodies.

Kairi was looking a bit flustered at the whole situation and began to laugh a bit at how overwhelming this was, thinking to herself that this whole thing was even tougher to deal with than Gravitus was. Mew quickly raised his right hand up and created an invisible series of wind tunnels that would carry his voice across the air, and then lifted his head up to yell into with "Everyone calm down for a moment and you'll be able to get some answers!" His voice went out into the entire crowd and struck their eardrums, immediately bringing them to temporary silence much to Kairi's surprise.

Mew then backed off for a moment and let Kairi get back to what she was doing, saying nothing but giving her an approving smile and wink beforehand. Kairi then held her arms down and commented "There's a lot I want to tell all of you." "Yeah! Like what happened above the pyramid! What did you do to us?!" One random Aurian proclaimed, and this just ignited the crowd's vocal rampage once more, leaving Mew with no choice but to put two fingers between his lips and let out a piercing whistle through his wind tunnels to shut them all up.

Kairi then looks at Mew and says while feeling absolutely embarrassed about this whole thing "Ugh…You're the better speaker here, you can tell them…I'll interject later…" Kairi then folds her arms together and appeared saddened by her failure to get her people to listen, but Mew would have to wait to cheer her up as the crowd's impatience would soon get them to start acting out of control once more. Turning to the crowd, Mew said "Ok guys, lets get down to the meat of the situation here…"

Mew spent a couple minutes explaining everything that had happened in the pyramid from beginning to end, being as quick but cohesive as he could while not mentioning the finer details like Kairi's reasons for fighting Gravitus and him going into Dark Form for the sake of making things easier for them to understand. Once he was done, Mew gestured his arms at Kairi much to her surprise and said "So long story short, Gravitus is dead and Kairi is the one responsible for doing that thanks to her being shown worthy of the Neo Drive."

"…You expect us to believe all of that?" One random Aurian said, and Kairi holds her right arm up then and shows off the rainbow stone that was the Neo Drive, commenting to the crowd afterwards "Well this stone on my bracelet isn't for decoration's sake." This display was enough to make the crowd pause one after the other, with those further in the back having the information of this relayed to them through the whispers of the crowd until they all eventually turned back at Kairi, with one of them commenting "W-We've heard rumors of what the Neo Drive looks like…But to think that you of all people were worthy of it…So then…That really means Gravitus is…?"

"Deader than the Dark King? Yeah, he is. So really, instead of being here you guys should be celebrating, living it up like there's no tomorrow! …Even though now you got plenty of those to go around without Gravitus breathing down your necks." Mew commented while awkwardly scratching the side of his head, and all the Aurians could do was blink a few times before one of them remarked "I really hope you aren't expecting us to start liking Kairi just because she stopped Gravitus though."

Kairi looked down because of that comment, but Mew just stretched his arms out and said in defense of her "Hey, both parties have a lot to get off their backs here, that can't just be swept under the rug, I get that…But you know a celebration is the perfect time to take care of whatever issues you have. Instead of being an organized mob, you guys can have the chance to speak to her one at a time in a laid-back partying environment. So umm…Do you guys have like a dining hall or something around here?"

Kairi turns to Mew and whispers into his ear "There's a pretty large one east of the pyramid." Mew's expression brightens up and he exclaims "Well there you go! Make up some dishes, bring all of your friends along, and lets all have a good time celebrating the defeat of Gravitus." There was a bit of silence amongst everyone else for a few seconds, with Mew putting a bright grin on his face as he continued to hold his arms out and waited for an answer from the Aurians. One of them then said "…Kairi, do you genuinely want to apologize for everything you've done over the last couple of years?"

Kairi nodded her head, telling her people then and there "Every last one of you I've wronged, if there's anything you want to say to me, then I'll take the time to speak to you whenever you're willing. But Mew's right…Let us have a party at the dining hall to celebrate our freedom from Gravitus' tyranny." Kairi smiled at the idea, and it seemed as though the Aurians were all in agreement of the plan as they just stared at each other and murmured for a few seconds before going their separate ways. Once they were back to taking care of their normal affairs, Kairi dropped onto her rear and sighed, saying to Mew immediately "You made that look so easy…"

"Hehe…Did I? Any mistake and I would've had all of them at our necks. Now the rest is up to you as far as mending things with your people goes, however." Mew said while folding his arms behind his head, and Kairi looked up at him and said "What? Are you planning on leaving already?" "What? No way. Got to have the cliché'd after-battle feast you know. Then I'll probably spend a night here and head back in the morning. Not like I'm in any rush, right?" Mew replied with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I suppose not. Hmmm…Guess I should go in and tell mom." Kairi said, pushing herself slowly off the ground while Mew remarked "She'd already know. I'd be more worried about putting on something nice for dinner tonight." "I-I don't really have anything nice to wear. Well, nothing like a fancy dress that is…" Kairi said while looking a bit embarrassed at the idea of wearing fancy clothes for once.

"Eh, do whatever you want then, but a nice appearance will help the conversations go by smoothly at dinner time, I feel." Mew said, with Kairi then grabbing Mew by the lip of his left sleeve and saying "T-Then you're going to help me pick out some stuff to wear!" Mew widened his eyes as Kairi tugged on him to go into the house, and with a nervous chuckle of acceptance Mew nevertheless said "For crying out loud Kairi, I know nothing about women's clothing! You're going too fast about this!"

Quite a few hours pass by before it's time for everyone to meet up at the dining hall, which lied east of the pyramid as Kairi mentioned. The hall was incredibly long, likely to fit the thousands upon thousands of Aurians that would want to come there for dinner. The hall's exterior aesthetic was similar to the pyramid's own, while the inside had a dim but warm lighting on the brown velvet walls. There were a couple large crystal chandelier on the ceiling and a couple of very long tables filled to the brim with plates and dishes of food beyond all possible comprehension.

All the Aurians were enjoying themselves to the best of their ability, with Mew just sitting back in a chair with a towering plate of food in front of him and a content look on his face. Mew looks to the left while chewing a piece of pie and finds Kairi chatting with a couple of Aurians her age about some things. It seemed as though things were going well, as she was smiling and none of the Aurians were on the ground bruised. Kairi had kept the same clothes on as before, but just put on a little bit of make-up to make herself look a little nicer.

With Kairi enjoying herself, Mew smiled and went back to his food for the time being until someone approached him from the side. "Perhaps you'd like to drink something to help digest all of that food." A familiar voice said before extending a green glass bottle out in front of Mew's face. Mew looked to the right and saw Auris standing next to him, with her now wearing a sparkling aquamarine sleeveless dress with the sides slit to show off her legs a bit and some of her breasts visible from the side. She also had on some fancy violet slippers and a little blush applied to her cheeks.

"Well well, someone's looking beautiful tonight, if you don't mind me saying." Mew said in a complimenting tone before taking the bottle from Auris' hand, with her commenting while she shows a genuine blush on her face and brushes the side of her hair "Oh I don't mind at all. I have chosen to enjoy the night for all it's worth, and it's been quite a long time since I wore this dress." Mew then looked at the bottle and said "So what's in this?"

"Just a blend of tropical fruits from other worlds. I grew them in my underground garden." Auris remarked, leading Mew to pop open the cork and prepare to take a drink, commenting afterwards "I did not know you had an underground garden. You'll have to show me it sometime." He then took a drink of the mixture, finding himself overwhelmed by the sensations of sweet and extravagant pleasure within while Auris brushed her hair again and said "Perhaps later, once the festivities have died down."

Auris then looked up and saw Kairi speaking with the other Aurians, which put a good smile on her face before saying "It seems Kairi is handling things well…I'm so glad to see this." Mew lets out a gasp of happiness after swallowing the juice down, commenting afterwards while his eyelids were closed in pleasure "She was still a nice person, it's just that part of her had been buried away for the last couple of years because of everything she had to deal with. Now that a lot of those problems are yesterday's news, she just has to make amends with everyone who wants to listen to her."

"In due time, I suppose. Mew, just make sure she makes it back home in time. I must attend to a meeting with someone else." Auris said, and Mew gave her an intrigued glare and said "Oh? Do you perhaps have a date tonight? With someone who will actually treat you right, I hope?" Auris shook her head and said "I will try and find a date some other day, months after all this is over…For now, I must meet with an old friend."

"Say no more. I'll just get back to eating myself to sleep and let you do your thing." Mew said before doing exactly that, and after Auris bowed her head in appreciation she turned around and slowly made her way out of the dining hall, moving between the bustling Aurians safely until she was greeted by the chill of the arctic nighttime. Her body quivered a bit but she braved the cold and let the breeze pass across her skin as she walked through the city, making her way slowly to the edge of the city until she came across the person she was to meet tonight.

It was Aurian Earth, who was currently standing and looking up towards the night sky where the stars shone brightly and the northern lights glowed with just as much luminosity. Earth's wounds had been patched up, and he still wore his samurai armor even though he was within the confines of the city. Auris paused a few feet behind him and smiled, saying to the man quietly "I see you've healed up, Gabriel." The man turned around and kneeled a bit, showing a respectful bow towards Auris before he commented "It wasn't too grievous of a wound the Elemental Overlord inflicted on me…My flesh will recover in a matter of days, especially with the treatment you gave me. I am as always in your debt, Lady Auris."

Auris laid a hand against the bottom of her chin and said "You may stand Gabriel. I know there are many things you wish to say to me." Gabriel lifts himself up and nods his head, stating to Auris with a respectful tone "I did what you asked me to and checked up on the other Planetary Aurians after Gravitus' defeat, alerting them of the news to the best of my ability…Unfortunately, I regret to inform you that Pluto has disappeared. I imagine his only defeat combined with Gravitus' death drove him mad and led to him running away. We'll have to keep an eye out for him should he try to make a move on his own. I'll reorganize the Planetary Aurians under my leadership and we'll attempt to find him in the meantime."

"Hmmm, I wouldn't worry too much about Pluto. He can't do much on his own. Just do not kill him when you do eventually find him." Auris said, followed by Earth nodding his head and saying in response to that "I shall do that…I still cannot believe though that it's finally over though. Two-thousand years is a long time for one to suffer the burdens I was forced to endure…But I would do it all again for you, Lady Auris. As her surrogate father, I cannot be prouder of what Kairi had accomplished."

Closing her eyelids, Auris remarked "In another timeline, you would've been even prouder as her actual father…Of course, in even another timeline, Damascus would have never become the monster named Gravitus." "But we cannot focus on what could've been. We can only protect what we have now. And I swear to you Lady Auris that I will not fail as my role as a guardian anymore." Earth said with the utmost honesty, and Auris opened her eyelids and said "Gabriel…There's something I want to say in regards to that."

"What is it, Lady Auris?" Earth inquired, leading to Auris lifted her right hand up and gently brushing the side of Earth's hair, telling him with an earnest smile on her face "I understand you wish to protect me still because that is what my father requested of you to do…But I feel as though your dedication to your duty has hurt you more than it has helped you." "We both have immortality, Lady Auris…And if I have chosen to spend my eternal years serving as your guardian, then that is what I will continue to do." Earth replied.

Auris then shook her head and said "It's because you are immortal that you should do more than just be my guardian. Live life for once, go out into the world you protect, and enjoy the splendors of it all without any restraints." Earth widened his eyes and said "L-Lady Auris…Are you saying…?" Auris nodded her head and pulled her arm back, reaching into the slit of her dress to pull out a small dagger from a belt she had placed close to her hip, and while holding it before her chest she said "Gabriel, please kneel down…"

Though he took pause at this request, Earth kneeled down before his sword protectee, and she held her left hand out and gently pulled on the back of his ponytail. With a quick slice from her dagger, she cut the ponytail off and let his hair spread out into a ruffled but more natural looking form. Keeping every strand of hair clenched in her hand, Auris held it in front of Earth's face and told him "I have cut you free from your burdens forever more. You may still be Aurian Earth, but I wish to see you form your own identity with the name you were given at birth, Gabriel."

Earth was left with his mouth agape and a look of shock on his face as he murmured out and laid a hand on the back of his hair "L-Lady Auris…Are you sure you wish to do this?" "Yes…Yes I am sure. As my last request though, I want for you to go to the dining hall and enjoy yourself like everyone else is. Perhaps send out an alert to the Planetary Aurians to come and join us, minus Uranus, of course…" Auris said.

"…Perhaps I will do that. Thank you very much, Lady Auris, and I hope you have a wonderful night." Earth said with a bow of his head in thanks before he stood upright and began to walk off, with Auris saying as the man left her there "I will have many wonderful nights from here on out, that much I can assure you." Auris then lifted her right hand up and walked directly onto the edge of the city, letting go of Gabriel's hairs so they can fall to the waters with the help of a breeze. Auris then sat herself down on the edge of the city and looked up to the stars, saying quietly to some unknown person "Wherever your spirit is at the moment, I hope you are enduring well…"

"Mom? Mom is that you?" Kairi's voice suddenly called out to Auris from behind, and she turned her head over her left shoulder to see her daughter running right at her with a surprised look in her eyes before she stops beside Auris and sits herself down on the edge of the city. Kairi looked Auris straight in the eyes and said "It is you…Geez, you look so different with these clothes on. I can see your clear skin and curves and everything…"

"Don't get used to it dear, it's only for tonight. Perhaps you could try it on sometime though?" Auris said with a teasing tone at the end, and Kairi immediately blushes after while swinging her hands out beside her head and saying "I-I could never make that look good!" Auris giggled a bit at that remark, and after a few seconds of silence between the two Kairi looks away from her mom and said "S-So mom…What I was trying to say to you earlier was…Ummm…"

Kairi quickly looked at her mom and with an honest expression of good will she suddenly proclaimed "I'm sorry for being such an ungrateful daughter!" Auris widened her eyes and then waited as Kairi said to her "You did so much for me and Shina, and I just spit in your face and acted like a total bitch. You didn't deserve it, and I'm sorry…" Auris blinked a couple of times and then shook her head a bit, admitting to her daughter "Perhaps I did deserve it a bit. I should have done a lot more to help you Kairi. Shina never should have had to leave the planet to get help, and you shouldn't have had to suffer the scorn of your peers. I was a horrible mother…"

"No no no, don't say that. I was a horrible daughter." Kairi said, and Auris insisted on her point of view by saying in turn "Please don't take all the blame, I was the horrible one here." The two go back and forth on blaming themselves for all the problems they had in regards to Kairi's own situation, both of them chuckling at how silly they were acting in regards to this not too long after they started. This then led to them both calming down and looking at one another, and after a few seconds of pause the two stretch their arms out and embrace in a nice and warm hug. With a merry sniffle, Kairi said "I-I love you mom…I don't ever want to lose you…"

"Neither do I Kairi…N-Neither do I…" Auris said, holding back her own desire to cry as best as she could until some small tears began to trickle down her cheeks. The two then pull back, with Kairi then laying her hands on top of her legs and glancing down at the arctic waters, leading to her remarking "Mom…There's something I want to discuss with you now. It has to do with Mew…" Auris nodded her head, remarking to her daughter with interest in her voice "We have all night to speak. Even without my premonitions, I can take a guess as to what you want to do…"

_Next Time: Summer Vacation? What an odd note to end this part on…_


	26. Final Chapter (Main Story)

**Final Chapter: Summertime Vacation…A Well Deserved One at That**

After many hours of grand festivities within the city of Sancturia, the Aurians had all retreated for the night…At least those of them who hadn't collapsed in the dining hall from overeating and overdrinking. In their cases, Kairi, Mew and Aurian Earth, with Auris' help, had to carry those people back to their houses. That took them a bit of time to get the job done, but at least when it was all said and done the four of them could go back to their homes for some well-deserved rest. Earth went back to his pagoda in the Sages' Pyramid, while Mew was offered to sleep on the couch back at Auris' house for the night.

Mew, even though he didn't need to, laid down on the couch and decided to fall asleep. He needed to digest all of the food he had consumed tonight, and sleep was the best way to do so. Oh, and I suppose he also did just want to enjoy a good night's rest after a very, VERY long day. And thankfully for his sake, he did not get hit with a single dream or a single nightmare…His mind was completely clear of all negative thoughts and left with the bless of happiness he felt he had long since deserved.

Though the couch was a little cold, it provided a comfortable resting spot until the morning arose across Sancturia, where the sun crept through the small windows near the door and blanketed Mew's face with beams of light. But with his eyelids shut to tightly he didn't even notice the light at first and let out a yawn, a hand laid atop his stomach as he unconsciously pat down on it and murmured a bit about the many foods he had last night. This went on for a few minutes until Kairi walked up beside him while wearing some droopy green striped pajamas and bent down, using a gentle flick of her fingers to knick Mew on the side of his face.

Mew slowly creaks his eyelids open upon feeling that sensation on his cheek, though with his vision a little blurred from just waking up it takes him a moment to recognize that it was Kairi standing next to him, especially with her wearing her night garments. After a bit of lip smacking to hydrate himself Mew murmurs out "…Is it morning already? …God, the night went by so quickly this time that's it almost like I went to sleep an hour ago…" Lifting his head up a bit, Mew begins to recognize that Kairi was next to him by sensing her energy and remarked "…I thought you'd want to get some more sleep after yesterday's excitement…"

"…It's almost 10:00 AM, Mew. In fact, I just got up a few minutes ago…" Kairi pointed out in a slightly dull, tired tone. Mew widened his eyes immediately and said "10? For crying out loud, I must have really been tired to have slept ten hours straight…" "I probably would have kept going had mom not woken me up for breakfast…" Kairi remarked while she rubbed her eyes a little, letting out a tiny yawn a moment later.

"Hehe, I bet she had just gotten up as well. Well, I suppose I can hear some bacon sizzling in your guys' kitchen, so it's not hard to guess that she's making some eggs and maybe some pancakes to go along with it." Mew said while glancing back at the kitchen, and Kairi replied "Is she? Huh…I didn't even know we had any bacon in the fridge. Hehe…I'm going to clear the table off before she's done." Kairi then turned around and began to move stuff off of the table, while Mew sat himself upright and moved his legs out while watching Kairi work.

"Cute pajamas." Mew said honestly with a smile, followed by Kairi pausing for a moment and putting on an embarrassed blush before she continued on with her work, stating to Mew afterwards "A-Are they really? They are a little big for me, but they are comfy…" "Well I suppose they don't show off your body well, but that's not really the point of pajamas in the first place. If you are comfortable wearing them at night, then that's all that matters." Mew commented on, and Kairi chuckled a little at that before she finished clearing the table off.

Kairi then kept kneeling to the side of the table and looked at it, pausing for a moment before putting on a warm expression and saying "…It still feels surreal to me, you know? Just yesterday, I hated a lot of people, was arguing with my mom, and didn't know what was going to happen to me…But now I'm kneeling in front of my table, about to have a nice hearty breakfast with two important people in my life." Kairi turned to Mew and said with a smile "It's all thanks to you. You deserve just as much credit as I do for saving us all."

Mew grinned a bit at that remark and said while leaning forward a little "Eh, I'm perfectly fine with being an unsung hero amongst your people. You deserve the honor more, cause in the end I just stalled for time against Gravitus." Kairi gestured a pointer finger at Mew and said with her right eyelid closed in a wink "Fine, but if you try faking your death again you aren't going to hear the end of it from me." "Heh, well that depends on whether or not the Neo Drive is stronger than my Dark Form." Mew remarked in turn.

"No exceptions." Kairi remarked while wagging her finger a bit, and around that time Auris could be seen walking into the room with three hot plates of food carried on her arms with the help of some trays made of aura. She was back to her normal robes since the need for a dress had long passed. "I see you two are enjoying a pleasant conversation." Auris remarked in a cheerful tone as she bent down and placed the dishes on the table. The plates had scrambled eggs with chives on top and a little bit of hot sauce in the middle, three pieces of crisp bacon each, and two pancakes with a bit of butter melted on top.

Mew notices that there was only one fork present, and that was on the plate Auris presented to him. "Thanks for the meal Auris, but don't you guys eat with forks as well?" Mew inquired as Auris sat down on the couch opposite of him and Kairi went beside her. His question was answered close to the end with them both lifting their right hands up and creating perfect looking forks from their aura. Mew blinked a couple of times and then sighed, saying with an intrigued smile "I suppose I should have seen that coming. Now I wonder why you guys have one metal fork to spare…"

As Kairi cuts into her pancakes with her fork she looked up at Mew and remarked "Well it's not like we are all able to just create forks of aura right when we are born." Mew shrugged his shoulders and picked up his fork, digging into the eggs while saying "I suppose you have a point. It's not like you've ever had to worry about guests either…At least non-Aurian guests." The three of them then spend the next few seconds eating before Mew says something else, swallowing his food before he jabbed his fork forward and asking "So now that I finally have a chance to ask this…Besides producing aura, is there ANYTHING different about an Aurian's body compared to a human's?"

Auris put her aura fork down and grinned at Mew a bit, telling him in a rather surprisingly honest tone "But of course. We have forked tongues, a pupil on the back of our eyes, pointed toenails, and nipples all over our bre-" That last remark made Kairi cough on some of her eggs, quickly swallowing it down and gasping for air while she looked at her mom and said "M-Mom! I was fine with you joking around until you went there! C-Come on now, that's disgusting!" "Actually I think having two pupils would've been creepier, but that's just me." Mew said in a nonchalant tone of voice.

"Teehee…" Auris said while laying a couple of fingers against her chin, giving Kairi an innocent look before she remarked "It's all a matter of taste I suppose." Auris then looked at Mew and said "But no…Physically we are both the same. Well I mean, I have breasts and a va-" "MOM!" Kairi exclaimed with her eyes widened in embarrassment, and Auris just closed her eyelids and after a tired sigh she said "Oh, you get the point by now. Lets just get back to eating our breakfasts."

Kairi gives her mom a bit of an embarrassed glare for a few seconds before looking back down on her plate and continuing to eat, trying to put her expression back to normal as Mew giggled a bit and returned to his meal as well. Mew then asked after making sure the mood was right "So Auris, I met with Gabriel last night while we were getting everyone back home…And he told me about how Pluto has gone AWOL. If they need my help capturing him, I'd be more than willing to do so." Auris shook her head in response, telling Mew afterwards "Pluto cannot handle himself against more than two people close to his level of power. Gabriel and Catherine should be more than enough to stop him, so just worry about relaxing for now."

"Is Pluto going to be executed for following Gravitus?" Kairi inquired while taking a bite of her food, and Auris stated "No. Without the Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage around to make a new Aurian Pluto, we have no choice but to keep him alive, otherwise it will throw off the planet's alignment." "Well hey, if something does come up though, it'd be best just to call me or Kairi in to help, assuming Kairi doesn't have to deal with any schoolwork, hehe." Mew said in a humored tone of voice.

"Actually, we follow the same school systems as the people of Earth do, so as of the moment Kairi is taking her summer vacation. If she needs to be called on to help, then she has all the freedom to do so…Minus a couple homework assignments she'll need to do for the start of the next year." Auris explained, followed by Kairi smiling a bit and putting her fork down atop her halfway finished plate of food before she looked Mew right in the eyes and closed her eyelids a bit, giggling as she does so.

"That's right. I have three months of vacation time available. Doesn't that sound exciting, Mew?" Kairi said, and Mew nodded his head and closed his eyelids while saying nonchalantly "My entire life is basically one big summer vacation, so I suppose I can't really understand the excitement." Kairi giggled again and said afterwards "I really don't think you understand what I'm getting at here, Mew. I have three months of VACATION time available."

"Hmmm?" Mew lifted his head up and stopped chewing his food for a moment, blinking a couple times before Kairi spells it out for him at that point by widening her eyelids open all the way and saying "I'm ready to take you up on that offer you gave to me yesterday, Mew." "Offer? Which one are you talking about?" Mew inquired, though his sly grin suggested that he knew exactly which one she was going to mention in just a moment.

Laying a hand against the top of her chest, Kairi stated "What good is a vacation if you don't go somewhere, right? And what better way to spend your vacation then to take a world tour of the entire Earth?" Mew's grin widened all the way, but after a moment of thought he said "But what about your promise to Shina?" Kairi went quiet for a moment and hung her head down, gripping the top of her pants as she explained to Mew "There's some hope that Shina is out there somewhere, but that's not an absolute guarantee…I'd love to wait to find her again so we could go to Earth together, but I also know she wouldn't hate me for making this decision…She always put my happiness above all else, after all."

"It's ultimately your decision to make Kairi. My words mean nothing here, I was just curious on your stance with your sister's promise." Mew said, imparting his viewpoint into the conversation in an empathetic manner as Kairi nodded her head and lifted it up with a smile, telling Mew afterwards "Then I will admit that I do feel a bit guilty about choosing to do this…But I'm not going to back down from doing it either. I already talked about it with mom last night, and that's how I made my mind up here this morning."

"But Auris…What of the restriction that prevents Aurians from going to the Earth? Are you going to lift it just for your daughter?" Mew pointed out, and Auris quickly replied by gesturing her right hand out and saying "I've already planned to lift the restriction not just for Kairi, but for all Aurians. However, I must still advise for all other Aurians to not be around other humans once they reach the age of 20. There is no reason to keep them in the city otherwise." Mew tapped his fork against the plate and thought about that comment for a moment before saying "…Why that age specifically? Is there something you aren't telling me, Auris?"

"Well I suppose this question was going to come up at some point or another…You see, while humans and Aurians have the same body types, the way our bodies develop are a little different." Auris put on a rather mysterious expression as she readies herself for explaining, and after crossing her arms below her chin she said "You see, in the early years of their lives, an Aurian develops in stages. The first stage from birth to four-years old is the same as a human, but on the exact day the Aurian child turns four their bodies are enveloped in a chrysalis of aura. For twenty-four hours, the aura accelerates the body's development, and the child emerges with the body of a six-year old when the process is done."

"However, an Aurian's body does not change after that for another four years, when the process repeats again on their eighth birthday, leaving them with a body of a ten year old afterwards. Then on their twelfth they emerge with the body of a fourteen year old, and on their sixteenth they come out with the body of a seventeen year old." Auris paused for a moment as Mew looked at Kairi and said "So you're physically older than me?" Kairi nodded her head and giggled before saying "Not that it matters too much."

"I suppose so, when you think about it…So what happens at age 20?" Mew focused back on the subject at hand, leading Auris to finish by closing her eyelids and remarking "An Aurian goes through a one-month transformation within a final chrysalis, achieving full maturity physically and gaining the ability to maintain their youthful appearance for roughly twenty years after. So as you can imagine, a human seeing such an event would lead to an international incident on your planet." Mew nodded his head in agreement and said "The restriction makes a little more sense now knowing that. But if they return to the city before that period, then at the very least that problem will be resolved."

With the matter of learning of the Aurian's growth development now out of the way, Mew looked at Kairi and said "So back to the actual subject matter here…Are you saying you want to come back with me down to Earth?" Kairi nodded her head once, rather a little slowly, and Mew followed up on that by gesturing his right hand out and admitting "Well, I do have a second bedroom in my house, so it's not like you wouldn't have accommodations…But would you be staying with me for the entirety of your summer vacation?"

"Well no…I still want to work on mending my relationships with the rest of my people, so I'm going to come back here every now and then during those three months to work on that. Most of the time though, I'll be spending my days with you, Mew." Kairi explained, followed by Auris closing her eyelids and saying with a smile on her face "Of course, there are three rules you must abide by while you are living together. One, you must make sure that Kairi continues her studies. Two, no sparring sessions that have you both fighting at your strongest. And three, no having sex, you're both minors."

The last point is said with a rather nonchalant bluntness, and as Kairi blushed a bit at that remarked Mew said "Well I think that should be our decision to-" "I will castrate you if you even consider it, Mew." Auris said with the same tone of voice as before while keeping the same motherly smile, and Mew's heart skipped a beat as she realized she wasn't joking around. "G-Got it…That's something that will happen at a much later date." Mew replied nervously.

Auris then opened her eyelids and remarked "But even with my threat there, I approve of both of your decisions here, and I offer you my blessing to enjoy yourself over the next three months." "That actually means a lot to me, Auris. Thank you for your blessing, and I promise to not let the two of us get into any crazy situations." Mew vowed with a smile on his face, and Kairi looked at her mom and said as well "Yep, you can count on that mom."

"Hmm…I wonder…" Auris whispered to herself before lifting her fork up and going back to eating, and Mew and Kairi both realized that their breakfasts would get cold if they didn't get back to them. The three of them finish their meals up with a satisfying look on their faces, and Auris proceeded to take the plates back to her kitchen in order to clean them off. Meanwhile, Kairi stood up from the couch and said to Mew "I guess I'll go get dressed now."

"I'll be waiting for you here." Mew remarked while folding his arms together and leaning back against the couch, and Kairi grinned before making her way up the staircase. After a few seconds, Auris walks back into the room and looks at Mew, who appeared to be in a contemplative mindset judging by his expression. Auris said "You're thinking of something else now, aren't you?" "…There's still one thing I haven't gotten an answer for yet." Mew commented before turning his head to look at Auris.

"Gravitus said he fought my brother Riku. Is that true? If so…Is Riku still alive?" Mew inquired, and Auris nodded her head and said "With events having lined up the way they have, there's no doubt that Riku is still alive. Though of course, I have no idea where he has ended up." Mew nodded his head a couple times and remarked "I wouldn't have expected him to be dead. He's my brother, he's just as stubborn as I am…I hope one day I'll be able to see him again. I'd have a pretty good story to tell him after this last day."

"And he'll have many to tell you of as well." Auris remarked, providing a little hint to the many journeys Riku had gone on since leaving the planet. As Mew hummed in response to that, Kairi began to descend from upper stairs with some daily clothing on. She had on the same green shirt as yesterday, but now wore some blue jean-shorts. Kairi got to the bottom of the stairs and looked at Mew, gesturing at the door with one hand while stating "Well? Are you ready to go?"

"You want to go already? Well, I guess there would be no reason to stick around here today now that you mention it." Mew said, and Kairi nodded her head in agreement as he got up from the couch. Auris said "You'll find that the weather down on the planet's surface is a little different than what you've experienced here, Kairi." "I know. There's hotter days, rain, snow, thunder, lightning, all that stuff…It's why I put my shorts on, to prepare for the summer heat." Kairi replied while Mew took some time to get in front of her.

Once the two looked each other straight in the eyes, Mew gestured out to the door and said "After you." Kairi chuckled a little at that before looking at her mom, saying to her happily "See you later mom! Thanks again for breakfast!" "I agree, it was nice to have a breakfast with others for once. Take care of yourself Auris, and don't get into too much trouble." Mew said, and as him and Kairi start to leave through the front door Auris gets a bit of a raised eyebrows expression on her face out of disbelief that Mew of all people would tell her to not get in trouble.

After leaving the house, Mew and Kairi make their way through the bustling city until they are at the edge of it. Along the way Kairi happily says good morning to her people, and though not everyone responded with the same those who said nothing did not seem to carry the same animosity in their demeanor as they did before. "Last night seems to have helped a lot." Mew remarked as they got to the edge of the city, and Kairi smiled a little and said "I have to keep working on this though."

"There'll be plenty of time for that later…" Mew said, and slowly he began to walk off the edge of the city while levitating on the air. After a few seconds he turned himself sideways and extended an arm out to Kairi, asking her with a curious look on his face "So…Where do you want to go first?" Kairi, after a momentary pause and a glance back at her home city, turned to look at Mew and extended an arm out to grab onto Mew's hand, walking out onto the air a moment later.

Looking each other in the eyes, Kairi gave an honest reply of "I think we'll keep it simple today. Just show me your house, Mew." Mew nodded his head and they let go of their hands, leading to them then turning to the surface of the planet and preparing to fly away from Sancturia. It was the start of a brand new day for the two little lovebirds, and it was one they were going to enjoy to the best of their ability…

A little while later, we find Auris walking into a familiar shrine, using the same method she did before to open the secret room she had used a couple days ago. She slowly walked into that room, making her way to the center of it so she was thus looking at all the lit altars in the room. With a smile on her face and a warm feeling in her heart, Auris looked at the flames and said "My children…All of you can rest easy now. Gravitus will never rule the Aurians again, I promise you that." The flames react to her voice, swaying around happily as a small whisper crept through her ears.

Auris then hung her head down a little and said "But I suppose you're right…The threats the Aurians will have to deal with does not end with Gravitus. The future can take many paths now, but I know for the most part where it shall truly be guided towards. Such is the will of the 'higher-ups'…As it has been since the time of my husband, as it has been since long, long before that, and as it probably will be until time itself comes to a stop." Closing her eyelids, Auris remarked as she quivered a bit "Mew…Kairi…I'm sorry that I could not tell you about what's to come, but please…Enjoy your happiness until the Phoenix of Destruction comes…"

**Part 5: Lover From the Lost Aura…**

**THE END**

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Well, Part 5's main story may be over, but I still have to do the side story with Riku that I said I would, so I won't talk about stuff until that's over with. But I'm taking a week break to finish off another story of mine first, so see you all then.


	27. Side-Story Chapter 1

**Side-Story: The Genesis Outbreak**

**Chapter 1: A Past's Revengeance**

As Mew was dealing with the affairs of the Aurians and the threat of Gravitus, little could Mew possibly have known was that his brother Riku was in the middle of his own affairs far across the universe. Specifically, he had taken residence at E. Gadd's laboratory in Toad Town in order to seek out answers on how to deal with a particular troublesome problem he had found himself wanting to tackle. However, his search for answers is being disguised as an excavation mission from E. Gadd's perspective, for Riku did not want the man to know what he was up to considering the history the man he was trying to hunt down and kill shared with the world… 

It has been about a month since Riku had made it to the Mushroom Kingdom, and he thankfully hadn't managed to catch the attention of anyone who was familiar with the Elemental Overlord legacy save for the little Crayzee Dayzee Driad. With the sun shining on the planet, it was a nice day to get some work done, and as such Riku could be seen walking out of a portal from the Stargadd with a couple of tablet chunks in his arms. E. Gadd, the short and balding professor, walks out as well a few seconds later with a few smaller chunks with some text on them.

Riku places the chunks he got on the steel table E. Gadd had set up close by and then swipes his forehead below his black hair, remarking as he did so "This is a pretty good haul to start the morning off professor…"

E. Gadd leaps up as best as his old man bones would allow him and places the chunks he got beside Riku's own, and then he remarked in an intrigued but panting tone of voice "I-I haven't gotten this much exercise since I was a wee lad…But it seems we are making a lot of progress, thankfully."

"Uh huh…I wish we could piece together some more information, but the parts of the Elemental Overlord's temple are so spread out that some of the information on the pictures and texts are getting mixed together." Riku remarked, glancing his head over to the pieces of text E. Gadd had found and moving his right hand out to push them together, hoping that they'd spell out something once he did so. To his surprise, they do, but as he squinted at the text he remarked "This is only the start of a sentence, but it seems to be speaking of something with 'Genesis' in the name…"

"Ohoho, you must have found something relating to the Genesis Samurais." E. Gadd remarked in a fascinated tone of voice, and Riku glanced at him and said "That's right, those are the seven warriors that acted as the last line of protection for the Elemental Overlord's power…If I remember correctly, Alpha said they all gave their lives to protect Alex Whiter from the reborn Dark King's power…"

"And then their souls became one with his body. Ohoho, I wonder what became of them…" E. Gadd was obviously referring to Alex's demise, though Riku knew that such a perspective was incorrect, leading to him leaning his hands against the table before thinking to himself _"Those poor warriors devoted their lives to the Elemental Overlord…And now Alex is abusing their power to harm others. If I don't do something to save them, they'll always be tormented…" _

"Is something on your mind Riku?" E. Gadd said, noting the look of contemplation on Riku's face before he widened his eyes in surprise and turned to the professor, telling him with an honest grin on his face "I'm just fascinated by what we have found so far though. Learning about how the Elemental Overlord made his temples, the fact that he had a wife, and that the Dark King was infused with the same Anti-Genesis Theorem that Alex's dark clone was infused with…It's all pretty interesting information. I kind of want to know more about the Genesis Samurais…Especially their reasons for being loyal to the Elemental Overlord."

"Ohohoh, we have tons of rubble to dig through still…There'll be plenty of time for finding that out later." E. Gadd point out, and Riku turned away from the table and said "I don't want to keep you away from your experiments today professor. If you can just hand me the iGadd you've been using to store the translated information, I'll spend today reviewing that and you can work without any interruptions."

E. Gadd nodded his head in agreement and then reached into his lab coat, pulling out a small handheld device shaped like his head and gave it over to Riku, who picked it up from the man's palm and thanked him appropriately before going to a nearby chair and sitting down, relaxing as E. Gadd got onto his own chair and sat before a table filled with beakers and some parts relating to his famed F.L.U.D.D.. Turning the device on, Riku leaned back a bit and put a hand behind his head, looking down at the screen as he tapped the right button and occasionally the left one to go through the information he had gathered. Not all of it was complete, but there were parts where he could easily fill in the blanks.

With a somewhat relaxed expression, Riku kept looking at the device and thought to himself _"One month has passed since I got here, and I still haven't found anything pertaining to the Gaia Temporis…From what Thanos said, that's the biggest problem I'd have to deal with when facing Alex in battle, since if even a multiverse abstract like The Living Tribunal could be made to not exist with it's power then I'd stand no chance if Alex chose to use that against me. Either the secret of the Gaia Temporis' power has been lost, or I just simply have not had good luck finding any information on it…"_

"Hmmm…" Riku lets out a pondering hum as he stops on a section of information stored on the iGadd regarding the power of the elements. Thinking to himself again, Riku mentioned _"There's nothing here about the Phoenix Form either…I know Mew and I can use it, but Alex has a more special version of the form because of the fourteen souls housed in his body…Alpha told me that each soul acts as a barrier against pretty much all attacks…If it was just that simple, I wouldn't be too concerned, but there's also the matter of the fact that the soul barriers can protect against a combination of attacks for a prolonged period of time, one that Alpha could not tell me of…There has to be some weakness to the barriers that I can exploit, there just has to be."_

"_There's also the matter of Alex Whiter's strength…He has the power to destroy planets, but just how much of his strength does he have to utilize in order to do so? I can't expect him to not use planets as collateral when we fight, and I have to be able to counter his attacks appropriately…" _As Riku gets deeper into these thoughts, he starts feeling concerned about the inevitable battle against Alex Whiter, and that concern manifests as sweat on his forehead and stress on his brain. Riku quickly lowered the iGadd away from his line of sight and lifted his head up, taking in a deep breath to try and relax himself.

"_And I have no idea where Alex Whiter is or what he's planning on doing next…The fact that the universe hasn't been threatened yet at least shows he's not doing anything…I assume. Damn it, it's entirely possible that he's spending time destroying other planets out there and I know nothing about it…What was the original Elemental Overlord thinking when he gave his powers to Alex Whiter? A madman like him should never have been trusted…Can't believe I'm saying this, but I almost wish the 'higher-ups' would contact me and have me take down Alex…If Thanos didn't confirm that they had a part in the destruction of the Marvel Universe."_

Riku rubs the lobes of his forehead and sighs bitterly, letting out an audible enough growl that E. Gadd stopped what he was working on immediately and remarked "Is something the matter Riku?" Riku looked at the professor and said "S-Sorry…I tried to process too much information again at one time. I got a bit of a headache."

"Ohohoh, don't push the brain too hard there my boy. Go to my cupboard and pick out one of those Koopa Leaves, and you should feel a little better after nibbling it." E. Gadd suggested while gesturing to his admittedly old-fashioned white cupboard on the eastern side of the room. Riku nodded his head in agreement of the idea and said as he lifted himself up from the chair "Thanks professor." Riku walks over to the cupboard and opens it up, finding himself face-to-face with a bunch of differing herbs and liquids, but quickly he pulls out a hand-sized leaf from one of the jar and puts it into his mouth.

Turning around and shutting the door as he chews, Riku heads back to his chair and keeps trying to calm himself down for now. _"What am I going to do next…? _Riku thought to himself, and raised a hand to his chin and rubbed it for a few seconds while contemplating his next move. "Professor, thank you for helping me excavate all these tablets." Riku decided to take a moment to lift his head up and thank E. Gadd for all of his help.

E. Gadd looked at Riku and told him "But of course. I'm learning a lot about history that has long since been buried. Though your ability to translate the tablets is certainly useful as well." Riku nodded his head in agreement, telling E. Gadd right away as he gestured his right hand out "I guess it's just something the Elemental Overlord gave to his reincarnations…"

"Even so, it's the reason that we are making as much progress as we have." E. Gadd pointed out, and Riku thought about that comment a little bit before lowering his head and realizing that E. Gadd had a point. Even if he hadn't yet found a solution to the problem with Alex Whiter, he would probably find the answer soon if he kept working hard like he had been doing. _"If I push myself too hard, I'm going to be in no condition to fight Alex…" _Riku thought to himself while smiling, closing his eyelids and internally thanking E. Gadd for his words.

His smile was interrupted by a rather hard knock coming from the top of the staircase, one that echoed down to the laboratory and instantly grabbed E. Gadd's attention. "Ohohoh, it seems someone has come to visit me." E. Gadd said in an excited tone, and he got off of his seat and began to walk towards the staircase. Looking up while nudging his glasses, E. Gadd stated happily "Hello! Who is it?"

There was no response coming from above, and E. Gadd laughed a little and said "Oh geez, or those whipper-snapper Toads trying to play a prank of me again? I should give them the ol' E. Gadd what-for." E. Gadd was rather jolly in his tone of voice, and he climbed the staircase a moment later as Riku watched him move and said with a chuckle "Don't give them too hard of a time E. Gadd, they're just kids."

Riku then thought it'd be a good idea to get back to looking over the information present on the iGadd, but it didn't take very long for him to suddenly shiver in pain as he felt something very peculiar moving through the air for just a brief moment. It was not a feeling unfamiliar to him, especially since he had grown accustomed to using darkness himself, but it wasn't right to feel darkness coming from a source that wasn't himself, especially in the likes of the Mushroom Kingdom.

The sensation was coming from the top of the staircase, and fearing that E. Gadd had walked right into a dangerous situation Riku quickly put aside the iGadd and made a sprint for the staircase. As he climbed the staircase, he heard E. Gadd struggling to say "My word…You are sure going to be in for it once Riku gets up here." An unfamiliar voice responds to that comment by saying in a puzzled but grisly tone "Riku? Old man…I don't get why you'd have a hero from another world here, but if you think he'd stand a chance against me, then you're sorely-"

Riku reaches the top of the stairs just before the voice finished speaking, and both him and the person in question as left with looks of absolute shock on their faces…And the two beings following the person were also surprised as well. Holding E. Gadd by the collar of his lab coat was a boy about Riku's age who was wearing a tattered sleeveless brown shirt with a faded skull on the front of it along with a belted pair of blue jeans. The boy had red eyes and black hair that stretched down to the bottom of his neck and covered up most of his forehead. From what Alpha had described to him, Riku knew that this person was the vessel of the Dark King's spirit, Joe Dark…But that boy died years ago when Alex Whiter had fought him, so by all means it should've been impossible for him to be standing in front of him.

The other two figures being there equally perplexed Riku…The person on the left was a couple years younger looking, but there's no doubt that he was a reflection of Alex Whiter's personal appearance during that time. He had black hair, a dark grey t-shirt and foggy black pants along with shoes that are pure white. His right eye was black, his left eye was white, and his skin was a bit pale in color. The second figure was clearly alien in appearance, with his mochaccino-colored thumb-shaped head and two funnel-shaped antennae protected by a glass helmet being the most obvious indication of his nature. He had a couple of limbless hands floating outside of his navy-blue cloak, and a couple of brown shoes below the empty void within said cloak.

But what truly got to Riku and distracted him from his focus was when the boy known as Joe Dark grit his teeth and remarked "You? What are YOU doing here?!" Riku swung his arms out and thought to himself _"I really should be asking all three of you that question…Joe Dark, Alex's dark clone born from Cackletta, and the reality bending alien that nearly caused existence itself to cease…It sounded like the three of you were gone for good, either because you died or left this planet be, but now you are back and united with each other…I have to play things carefully here…"_

The alien known as Mr. Reality floated forward a bit and looked at Riku, telling Joe Dark with a glance of his one eyes towards him "This isn't him. I'd say it would've been possible if it was just the hair that changed colors, but his eyes are different too…Lets not get too hasty here, Joseph." Joe Dark grits his teeth a little more and says "I really wish you would stop using my full first name…And the fact that this isn't him doesn't change my question, you know."

"I understand that, but you looked ready to cause some damage to the nearby area. Remember, we aren't here to cause trouble, we just need what the professor has in his lab." Mr. Reality pointed out, and the one that looked like Alex narrowed his eyelids and whispered immediately "He still looks like evil me, we should kill him." Though he stayed quiet throughout, the evil clone's words dripped with a subtle hatred as did the glare he locked onto Riku.

"…Let me guess, you're a clone of that clone I encountered a couple years ago…What was his name again…?" Joe Dark inquired, staying a little bit calm in this situation out of his own choice rather than because the alien asked him to do so. "You're talking about my brother, Mew. I'm Riku…And yes, I am his clone." Riku said, taking ever spare second he could to think about how to handle this situation.

Joe Dark grit his teeth further and irritatingly remarked "Another damn clone…Every time I try and go after Whiter, it seems there's another one of his clones getting in my way." The mention of Joe Dark's motives ringed a familiar sensation within Riku's mind, and he widened his eyes upon remembering that Joe Dark hated Alex Whiter with an incredibly unhealthy passion. He had an idea on what to do with this knowledge, but needed a few more facts before deciding to use it. Looking at Joe Dark straight in the eyes, Riku eased up his body a bit and said "I'm only going to get in your way if you cause trouble. What are you three looking for?"

Mr. Reality, being the more delicate talker of the three, floated past Joe Dark and looked up, saying in a polite tone "We are looking to use the kindly professor's Stargadd device to find a couple of people." Riku looked at Mr. Reality and said to him "…I'd think a reality-bending alien would have no trouble locating a couple of people."

Mr. Reality scratched the side of his helmet and with his floating right hand and remarked "Give me any other circumstances and I would, but of course, if such circumstances were there I wouldn't be here in the first place." Riku inquired immediately "You'll have to be more specific than that."

"…He's saying that he cannot use his strange powers to get us to our targets, my third evil me…" The copy of Alex, which Riku decided to refer to as Chaos Alex from this point onward due to his color scheme reminding him of that form, said in a blunt but still quiet tone. Mr. Reality chuckled and said "I was about to get to that…"

Joe Dark glared at Riku and told him "Whatever this Time Stone/Gaia Temporis thing that Reality had to deal with seems to have left a lasting effect on Whiter and Mew. He can't use his powers to reach them directly…But using something like the Stargadd…" "Would allow you three to reach the planet both Joe Dark and Alex Whiter were born on…" Riku said to finish his sentence off, grimacing a little upon realizing that he had pointed that out.

"I'm honestly surprised you don't seem to know the Gaia Temporis was capable of that…" Mr. Reality pointed out, leading to Riku remarking "It seems even after all Alpha told me, I'm still missing a lot of information…Of course, Mew getting amnesia probably has a lot to do with these blanks. Though clearly your encounter with my brother happened before my creation, Joe Dark…"

Mr. Reality widened his eye and remarked in a surprised tone "A-Amnesia? Mew was inflicted with amnesia…?" Joe Dark quickly looked at the alien and told him "I wouldn't listen to this clone. Whiter and his kin are known for being very good at trickery…" Joe Dark tossed a glare towards Riku at the end of his sentence to show off his obvious suspicion.

Riku knew that because of Joe Dark's view on the matter, it would be a waste of time to try and convince the three of them that what he said is true. Instead, he was more concerned about asking while firmly glaring at the group "Reality…Why is my brother having amnesia important to you?" Mr. Reality lifted his head up and glanced at Riku, telling him quietly "Simple…Your brother made a promise a few years ago to help me out with a very, very important situation."

"He doesn't need to know about that!" Joe Dark bluntly remarked, and Mr. Reality calmly replied as Chaos Alex started to impatiently tap his right foot against the ground due to how slowly this back-and-forth conversation was seeming to progress "Remember…We aren't trying to cause any trouble. In fact, I'd say it'd probably help our situation more if you let go of the kind man."

Joe Dark, realizing he still had E. Gadd in his grasp his whole time, looked at the man and then let go of him a moment later with some hesitation in his action. E. Gadd landed on his delicate rear at the top of the staircase but got up a few seconds later with Riku's help, remarking as he nudged his glasses "I think I will hide myself in my laboratory for now…Please be careful not to cause too much damage to the building Riku."

E. Gadd then retreated into the staircase, followed by Mr. Reality looking at Riku and explaining to him "Since you seem to have heard of my business here on this world a while ago, I'll cut right to the most important part. You see, near the end of my little and very foolish game, your brother used the Gaia Temporis against me, causing the reality bending I had inflicted upon our battleground to cease. Because of that, a parasite known as the Parakali dug itself into my mind and used my body and my powers to create a horrible leviathan monstrosity that very nearly wiped out existence."

"I know about that last part…" Riku whispered, and Mr. Reality mentioned afterwards "But after your brother freed me from the leviathan I was promised from him that he would find a way to eliminate the Parakali from my mind. With those parasites stuck inside of me, I am not able to use my reality bending powers much without fear of them taking over. Joe Dark can regulate the parasites a little since they are born of darkness, but the more power reality bending magic I use, the harder it is to hold them back…"

Riku folded his arms together and remarked "…And so you want to see my brother again and ask if he ever found anything out? And just how can I know you can be trusted not to cause trouble with your powers again?" Mr. Reality gave Riku an honest to god smile and told him "That's behind me now…Your brother taught me not to abuse my powers for games like the one I inflicted on this world."

"…You say you won't cause any trouble, and yet you are hanging around with the Dark King's vessel and the boy whose sole purpose is to kill everyone." Riku commented on, and Joe Dark quickly grinned and gestured his right hand out while laughing, telling Riku a moment later "Your information is quite full of blanks indeed, second clone of Whiter…The Dark King's spirit was exorcised from my body a couple years ago, when that damned demon took over your brother's body and beat me within an inch of my life."

Riku was quite surprised to hear of this, and it led to him stuttering a little before saying "Then how the hell are you still alive?" Joe Dark grinned and sad with a bit of ecstatic madness in his voice as his aura of darkness emerged around him "So long as Whiter and his kin exist, I will not be stopped even by the claws of death itself. I do not need the Dark King's spirit to maintain his powers, and I am very, VERY glad to never have to deal with his accursed influence again."

"_And yet you are still insane…" _Riku thought to himself while glaring Joe Dark right in the eyes, followed by Riku then looking at Chaos Alex and telling him "And you…Chaos Alex…What is your deal? How did you come back to life? Why are you working with these two?"

Chaos Alex glared at Riku, scowling a little before saying quietly "I will never answer you, third evil me…" Joe Dark quickly glanced over his shoulder and chuckled, telling Chaos Alex in a humored voice "Go right ahead and answer him. Lets humor him a little…"

When Joe Dark then looked back at Riku, Chaos Alex lifted his eyelids a little bit and said "…I will destroy all evil versions of myself, my life was reborn thanks to Joe Dark rebirth, and I work with them because they are searching for my evil mes…" Riku was surprised at how quick Chaos Alex was at explaining himself while continuing to be quiet, though the fact that he called Alex Whiter his 'evil me' was certainly an interesting thing to note. "Wait…Wasn't your plan to annihilate all life in the universe under Cackletta's wishes?" Riku questioned.

Suddenly, Chaos Alex widened his eyes in a very angered manner and said in a slightly raised tone of voice "No. I want nothing more than to wipe all traces of my evil mes from the universe. I don't care how much mother's influence tells me to do otherwise…" Joe Dark grinned and said "So as you can see, our goal is nothing more than to take care of things involving Whiter and his clones…The fact that we aren't trying to annihilate you at this very moment is because we have just met, and I'm willing to let you be if you simply let us use the old man's teleporter. So what do you say, clone?"

Joe Dark's face was filled with anticipation for an answer on Riku's end, but Riku did not have to ponder things for long as he quickly squinted his eyelids and told the three before him "You know, I'm actually out to kill Alex Whiter myself." This caught both Chaos Alex and Joe Dark by surprise, with Chaos Alex remarking "…Is this merely a case of you trying to trick us, or has my original evil me gotten that bad that even you can't stand the sight of him?"

"I don't have to explain myself on that end…What I'm saying here is that if you want to go after Alex Whiter, I won't stop you in the slightest." Riku firmly remarked, and Joe Dark gestured his right hand out and said "Well thank you for supporting our goals then…I must admit, I didn't quite expect a clone of Whiter to turn against him. I suppose there is such a thing as miracles after all regarding his kin…"

Joe Dark gestured out to Mr. Reality and Chaos Alex and prepared to head down the stairs by going around Riku, but Riku quickly lifted his right hand up and rested it against Joe Dark's chest. Joe Dark and his comrades paused, with Riku lowering his head and saying "However, as far as my brother goes…" He lifted his head up and gave Joe Dark a powerful glare, telling him bluntly as he knew the choice he was making here would initiate a fight "He's off-limits. I'm not letting any of you get close to him, even if all of you had good intentions…"

"…I know this was going to happen. We should have killed him right away." Chaos Alex remarked as he lifted his right hand up and began to create black flames around it. Joe Dark extended his right arm out and grinned slightly as he looked at Chaos Alex, telling him quietly "Relax. Let me handle this…Hehehe…"

Joe Dark then looked at Riku and told him while lifting his head up to sneer "So you really want to fight the three of us? Is that what you are wanting, clone?" Riku paused for a moment and felt his heart beating against his chest as Joe Dark expressed his confidence bluntly, but then he looked at Mr. Reality and asked him "If you aren't satisfied with my brother's answer, would you be perfectly fine with Joe Dark and Chaos Alex killing him?"

"…I won't deny that my answer to that question is 'yes'…" Mr. Reality replied while closing his eyelid upon recognizing why Riku was asking him that question, and Riku glanced back at Joe Dark and told him "Then yes, I am fighting all three of you. But I refuse to do it around here."

Joe Dark gestured to the right over his shoulder and mentioned "I think you should know all too well of an open field not far from here. We'll fight there, if you want." Riku remarked immediately "Fine…But I thought you of all people wouldn't care about collateral damage."

"I've learned from experience that it's a waste of time of try and target others. All I need to do now is focus all of my hatred on Whiter and his kin…" Joe Dark pointed out with some insanity in his voice, and Riku paused for a moment before lifting himself off the ground and saying as he looked down at Joe Dark and his allies "Then lets not waste any time."

"I agree…Hehehe…" Joe Dark and Chaos Alex lifted themselves up off the ground, and Mr. Reality let out a tired sigh before remarking "I wish we could have avoided a conflict, but I suppose this was also inevitable." He then followed his allies in their levitating, and all four of them quickly shot off from E. Gadd's laboratory and flew their way over to a wide-open grassland, one that lied between quite a few mountains and was thus out of the way of any of the populace.

The four of them landed on the ground, and Riku immediately swung his right arm out and summoned forth his helix-bladed handle-less sword, holding it out beside his hip as Joe Dark called forth his dagger of darkness and Chaos Alex summoned his monochrome fanged sword with black flames surrounding it into the grasp of his right hand, and Mr. Reality called forth warped energies around his hands while sighing a bit in reluctance of this fight. Riku thought to himself as he stared his three enemies down _"Ok, no turning back here…"_

_Next Time: The Gap of Time for Darkness_


	28. Side-Story Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Purgatory of Existence**

"_This will be far more satisfying when I do this to Whiter's blood…But for now, it feels good to be alive, ready to take my vengeance!" Two years ago, Joe Dark had just finished crushing the neck of the man known as Gravitus and burst his way out of the ship he had been put inside of. After flying a good distance above the ship, Joe Dark grinned happily and said "Not a bad looking ship, but I don't need that to navigate the recesses of space. That man was a fool above all fools to try and get me to join his side, and his death is what he deserved!"_

_Joe Dark then lifted his head up and looked to the stars ahead of him along with the vastness of swirling cosmos' even further ahead of all those stars. The dark depths of space looked absolutely gorgeous with the bright blue colors of the cosmos mixing it with the bright glints of white light, leading to Joe Dark actually taking a moment to pause and look at the beauty of space for a little bit, and the serious maniacal look in his eyes actually melted away for a moment and led to him remarking "…Space is a very fascinating thing to look at…"_

_Looking down a little bit and paying attention to the flesh on his body, specifically the hands, and thought to himself "I am alive…I really am still alive…" Joe Dark paused for a moment and clenched his fingers against his palm a couple of times before looking blankly ahead, realizing that he was without the Dark King's spirit anymore thanks to that strange demon's interference in his battle with Whiter's clone. Grinning a little bit and chuckling to himself after thinking about that, Joe Dark then whispered "Now I am free…And it feels GREAT."_

_Even without the Dark King's spirit, Joe Dark still maintained the power of darkness within his body. He did not feel any loss of power at all, though he didn't gain any at all either during the duration that he was being restored in that strange man's pod. "That's fine…I'll collect darkness again out there in the universe. I don't need that phantasm's influence to help me out! And I'll find and kill Whiter, this time making sure that I find the REAL one. Hahahah….HAHAHAHAH!" Roaring into laughter at the end of his sentence, Joe Dark flared up the darkness within his body and burst forth towards the depths of space with as much speed as he could muster._

_However, it didn't take very long for the boy of darkness to realize that he was without direction. He had no idea where to go next, as space was very vast, and even with the ability to fly as fast as he could through space without any idea of where anything was he was just going nowhere and nothing else. After a week of blindly flying through space, Joe Dark suddenly stopped and infuriatingly looked at the depths of space in front of him, which was bathed in the bright glow of roughly three suns of differing sizes._

_After grasping the side of his head and growling in frustration, Joe Dark begrudgingly admitted to himself "I have no idea where the HELL I am even supposed to be going!" He quickly started to realize that it was a stupid idea to just quickly abandon that mysterious man's ship. At the very least he should have checked it for some universal map…Now that he was so many millions of miles away from that ship, there was no way in hell that Joe Dark is going to find it now. Worst of all, he had not run into any planets that he could land on._

_Lifting his head up and looking around, Joe Dark thought that maybe he'd find something, ANYTHING out there that he could go an investigate…But that's the biggest flaw about space, as Joe Dark remarked to himself "Space…It's beautiful, but it can also be very, very empty…" Laying a hand against the side of his head, Joe Dark cursed the lack of progress he could make and freaked out a little, exclaiming to himself "Damn it…DAMN IT!"_

_The reason for cursing himself came from something he really, REALLY did not want to admit to himself. For all the joy he felt for not having the spirit inside of his body anymore, the fact that the original Dark King was not around anymore meant he had no way to knowing where to go for great sources of darkness, and now he was not only directionless, but worst of all he was completely alone. "Damn it…Am I really cursing not having that phantasm inside of me…? Him of all people…" Joe Dark mumbled to himself._

_But then the truth struck him hard, making him realize as much as he didn't want to that he somewhat liked having the Dark King inside of his body. It wasn't because of the spirit's personality or help or anything like that…Just the simple fact that he had someone accompanying him was comforting to a boy who had gone without company for so very long. All those years traveling the continent he lived on he spent them all alone, all that time his soul spent in Hell after dying to Whiter he spent agonizingly alone, and once more he was going to be alone…_

_With his heart pumping against his chest painfully as he rapidly comes to realize this fact, Joe Dark suddenly swung both of his arms out and exclaimed throughout the cold recesses of space "DAMN IIIIT! YOU'RE A SPIRIT, DAMNED PHANTASM! YOU DON'T GET TO DIE FOREVER. SHOW YOURSELF! I KNOW YOU'RE WATCHING!" But even if the sound of his voice could reach beyond the confines of his darkness, Joe Dark would not receive any response. The Dark King's spirit had been purged from this world, banished without any way of ever returning._

"_ANSWER ME!" Joe Dark exclaimed, his darkness erupting across miles of space in hopes of making the Dark King's spirit answer him. But again, it was all to no avail…Joe Dark then lowered the darkness around his body a bit and grit his teeth so tightly that they'd break apart if he went any further, leading to him scowling and saying quietly "Fine…You want to be this way…THEN I WILL FIND YOU MYSELF!" Erupted into this proclamation, Joe Dark swings his arms out tightly and then thrusts forward through space very rapidly._

_For a few months straight, Joe Dark does nothing but fly through space in search of anything resembling the Dark King's spirit. He passes many planets by, making any inhabitants on them notice a dark streak in the sky as he does so. It was not his intention to cause widespread panic across the galaxy as he flew, but he was focused entirely on his mission and thus didn't put any thoughts into that. As a being of darkness, he did not require food in the slightest, nor did he need sleep, water or air…_

_So eventually, what tired the boy out was not a lack of any of those factors, but rather the sheer frustration of making no progress forced him to just crash down onto a large but empty moon and collapse onto his back in exhaustion. "H-How long…Was I going for…?" Joe Dark remarked in disbelief, realizing that he knew nothing of how long he had flew through space for. He had gone for so long, that's all that could be said about the whole affair…But because he was so focused on one singular goal, he lost track of anything else around him. _

_Joe Dark raised his right hand up and laid it on his forehead, panting in agony for a few seconds before remarking to himself "Why…Why?! Why the hell does this keep happening?!" Joe Dark looked up at the space above him and cursed it internally, remarking as he did so "Damn you Dark King…Damn you Whiter…Leaving me alone…Damning my entire existence…I hate you both! SO WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU SO I CAN PUNISH YOU FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME?!"_

_There was never going to be an answer to any of Joe Dark's demands. He was alone, no one was going to acknowledge his words, and he knew all too well that it was his own fault for letting things get this far…His and Whiter's faults, to be exact. "I should never have left that ship…And now I'm lost…Damned God above, if you are even the slightest bit merciful, then just give me one ray of hope for once in your godforsaken exis-" Suddenly, Joe Dark paused and looked to the right, feeling some sharp focal point of darkness coming from a very far but at the same time relatively close distance away._

"_This darkness…Could it be?" Joe Dark suddenly snapped upright off the ground and grinned, remarking to himself with a slight bit of disbelief and joy "Unbelievable…Perhaps a higher power is on my side after all…" Joe Dark lifted himself up off of this moon and flew through space towards the source of energy he had detected, going through miles of space for at least fifteen minutes until he finally reached the location of the darkness he had detected…The darkness was on another moon, one floating above a semi-familiar blue and green planet. As Joe Dark landed on the surface of the moon a good distance away from the source of darkness and looked at the planet, remarking as he walked forward "What? This can't be the Earth, can it? …That moon I landed on earlier didn't look like one in my solar system…"_

"_But there's no mistaking it…I'm sensing the Dark King's energies…" Joe Dark grinning as he realized that, but at the same time questioned why the energy kept stationary even as he moved closer. Surely the spirit of the Dark King would recognize the energies of his host body and react…But as Joe Dark would come to realize, it was not the Dark King himself he was sensing, but the vessel of that sensation was still someone he was at least the little bit familiar with. _

_Looming on the surface of the moon without moving even a single inch, untouched by anything in the slightest was Chaos Alex, who Joe Dark mistook for Whiter for a moment and promptly exclaimed "WHITER! How could you possibly have tri-" Upon realizing that it was not Alex Whiter he was looking at, Joe Dark widened his eyes and removed the scowl from his face, remarking in a murmuring tone "Wait…You're that dark copy of Whiter that the witch created…"_

_Looking up at the Earth, Joe Dark realized that this was the Earth where he was defeated by those two hedgehogs…Of all the things to remember, this was certainly not the time to remember that detail. But surprisingly, the curiosity of knowing just what this dark copy of Alex was doing here on the moon still overpowered Joe Dark's desire to give the denizens of this Earth a piece of his mind for his earlier defeat. Walking forward begrudgingly, Joe Dark stepped beside Chaos Alex's body and looked at his head, seeing that he was not at all blinking, even after Joe Dark looked at him for a good minute or so._

"…_What's going on with you?" Joe Dark inquired as he lifted his right hand up and waved it in front of Chaos Alex's face, but it only took one motion for the dark copy to raise his right hand up and grab onto Joe Dark's wrist tightly. Joe Dark grimaced a little until Chaos Alex creaked his head to the right and looked blankly into Joe Dark's eyes, and he whispered out in a semi-apologetic tone "…It's only you…"_

_After Chaos Alex let go, Joe Dark pulled his arm back and rubbed the wrist, surprised that the boy dealt some lasting damage to his bones as he remarked with a surprised look in his eyes "You're still here? …Why?" Chaos Alex remarked while still refusing to blink "You told me to think for myself…Don't you remember?" _

"_Yes…I did say that, but I didn't tell you to stay in the same spot all this time. Haven't you grown tired of being in the same place for so long?" Joe Dark inquired, and Chaos Alex shook his head and remarked "I don't need to…Thanks to my powers…I don't feel any stiffness in my body, and I don't require any nourishment in the slightest."_

_After adjusting the bones in his wrist back to normal, Joe Dark stepped directly in front of Chaos Alex and asked him "I can relate to that…But tell me, have you made any progress in pursuing your individuality?" Chaos Alex nodded his head at a slow pace, whispering out a moment later while keeping his eyes focused straight ahead and not acknowledging Joe Dark's own eyes in the process "I have suppressed my mother's will upon realizing that there can never be such a thing as an entire universe full of evil people and that her wishes were fundamentally there just to manipulate me into killing everyone for her…"_

"_Oh? And how did you come to that conclusion?" Joe Dark inquired with an intrigued grin on his face, and Chaos Alex looked up and honestly remarked to Joe Dark with a quiet "You…You made me decide that." Joe Dark was actually quite surprised by that answer, and with a couple eyelid blinks he told Chaos Alex "W-What do you mean?"_

_Joe Dark could rarely be rendered into a state of surprise that didn't eventually lead into anger at whoever caused that emotion, so for Chaos Alex to do so made Joe Dark listen carefully as the dark clone pointed a finger at him and said "I thought about it long and hard, and I realized that there was a lot of genuineness to your words…You really wished to help me out…So now I find myself asking you why?"_

"_W-Why? Well…No one deserves to be used as a puppet, especially by their own 'mother'. That's why…" Joe Dark remarked, and Chaos Alex lowered his arm and nodded his head while stating simply "I see…Then I thank you for using that logic in deciding to help me…" _

_Joe Dark closed his eyelids and growled a little, remembering that back then he had used that very logic to try and manipulate Chaos Alex into joining his cause to kill Whiter. "What a hypocritical bit of 'logic'…" He thought to himself in disgust, followed by Chaos Alex suddenly tilting his head and asking "Have you managed to accomplish your goals?"_

"…_No, of course not." Joe Dark admitted after a moment of hesitation, leading Chaos Alex to remark "…Evil me is not someone you can easily kill, is he?" Joe Dark actually laughed a little at that remark, telling Chaos Alex in a rather laid-back but raspy tone "Oh you have no idea…Of course, it's not so much that I'm having difficulty killing him rather that it is I can't seem to find him."_

"_Hmmm…I'm sorry to hear that. Evil me needs to die, and I was hoping when we met again you'd have gotten him…" Chaos Alex remarked with his eyelids slanted a bit to show disdain as he spoke, something Joe Dark picked up on as he said "Heh, you're able to emote a little more now. Color me surprised."_

_As Joe Dark grinned at the display of emotion, Chaos Alex remarked quietly with "I think mother was suppressing my ability to show emotions…I remember being angry one time before she 'calmed me down', but that's pretty much it…I think I'm supposed to feel good about showing emotions, right?" "Hmmm, depends on what you feel is good to experience…" Joe Dark said honestly._

"_I've felt a few things since I suppressed mother's will…Surprise, a bit of joy, some loneliness, but there's one thing I've felt above all else…Hatred." Chaos Alex said, glaring at the end of his sentence up into space as Joe Dark felt a bit of a chill coming through his body as the dark clone said that. "And it's not hard to figure out that your hatred is focused entirely on Whiter…" Joe Dark said while laying a hand against the side of his face and the elbow of that arm atop his crossed other arm. _

_Chaos Alex nodded his head as he slowly readjusted it to look back at Joe Dark, telling him quietly "I find that the only thing I truly hate in this universe is my evil me…I hate him so much, every last thing he's done is despicable, and I want nothing more than to see him writhe in pain beneath my foot, him losing every last breath within his punctured, bloody lungs…And then I will paint the cosmos red with his bloody remains, leaving no trace of his existence ever again!" Chaos Alex unintentionally causes his black flame aura to erupt around his body as he gets increasingly angered with every word he said, leading Joe Dark to be pushed back a couple inches due to how unexpected the actions were._

_But then Chaos Alex calmed down in a near instant, putting on the same stoic demeanor he had before as Joe Dark twitched a bit in shock. "F-Fascinating…" Joe Dark thought to himself upon seeing Chaos Alex's fit of rage, and he then followed up on this by grinning a little and saying "But why do you hate him so much?"_

_Chaos Alex responded by harrowing his brows quite a bit and explaining "He deserves nothing…He gets to have allies, a home, he had a legitimate family, and he has all that power for free…And I could tell that he is nothing more than a hypocritical maniac who will do nothing but ruin all that is around him. I hate him…I hate him so much!" His outburst of anger is a lot shorter than before, and this is then followed by Joe Dark remarking with an intrigued look in his eyes "Hehe…I see, I see…"_

_Chaos Alex then looks straight at Joe Dark and said to him "Joe Dark…That's your name, right? Don't you agree we should team-up and kill evil me together?" Joe Dark blinked a couple times in surprise before replying "Are you really suggesting that? Tell me…Are you wanting to do this simply because I helped you gain some individuality? Cause if so, you haven't learned much about it…"_

"_I hate evil me of my own will. I just wish for us to work together because that would be more beneficial for our goals…" Chaos Alex commented rather logically, and Joe Dark simply closed his eyelids and sighed, remarking to the dark boy afterwards "Hmmm…You'd be better off just going after Whiter yourself. It's bad luck to be around me."_

_Chaos Alex shook his head and remarked "I don't believe that. You should have more faith in yourself…Otherwise we will truly lose out to evil me's existence." Joe Dark opened his eyelids and replied while rubbing the bottom of his chin a little with his fingers "I suppose you do have a point…But you must also realize that Whiter has always had an accursedly good amount of luck on his side. The universe favors him because it sees him as the good guy, after all…And we're meant to be the villains."_

"_Hmmm…." Chaos Alex murmured at that remark, and after a few seconds of thought he nodded his head slowly and remarked quietly to Joe Dark "Then I'm tired of being labeled as one. Evil me gets to have all these things that he doesn't deserve, calling himself a hero when it's clear he isn't one…We should kill him, reveal him for the villain he truly is, and undo the illusion he has cast upon those around him…"_

"_Of course, there's still the matter of having to find Whiter…We have no clue where that planet he's on lies." Joe Dark reminded the boy before letting a bit tiny sigh, leading to Chaos Alex suggesting as he pointed towards the planet "…Why don't we ask the people down there if they know where the Mushroom Kingdom is?"_

_Joe Dark grimaced a little and bluntly stated "Hell no. I want nothing to do with this world anymore…Besides, I doubt they know where that planet lies. We'd have much better luck if we checked out another world and asked around. Of course, you do realize that we are very likely to spend a lot of time searching for Whiter?" Chaos Alex slanted his eyebrows and remarked "I don't think I can age, I am more than willing to wait a very, VERY long time to find a way to put an end to Whiter…"_

"_Well, that's certainly the right mentality to have…Hmmm, now that you mention it, you really don't look like you have aged much since the last time we saw each other." Joe Dark commented, and Chaos Alex remarked solemnly "…And you have aged a little…" Joe Dark looked at himself for a little bit and then said in a rather surprised tone "It's really odd that I have aged, considering I was dead for at least a year and that I barely eat a thing…"_

"_I suppose that's just your darkness sustaining your body…But then why don't I age?" Chaos Alex looked at his body while lifting his hands up, and Joe Dark scratched the side of his head and bluntly admitted "Hell if I know. You shouldn't give a shit about that at all, at least you're stuck with your youthful body. You'll never become an old man with wrinkles and grey hair, though I suppose grey would fit the color scheme you have on your body. Hehe…"_

_By this point Joe Dark paused and realized the grin on his face felt rather good and that he was genuinely enjoying a conversation with this dark reflection of Whiter. "Hehehe…Looks like for now, I won't be alone again…" Joe Dark thought to himself before he then threw a hand up over his right shoulder and remarked "Come on, lets waste no more time on this large boring rock. We're not going to find Whiter if we just continue to stand around here…"_

_Chaos Alex nodded his head in agreement, and like that the two had formed a bond, united in their hatred of the one known as Alex Whiter. Leaving this moon behind, the two fly throughout the cosmos in search of any clues they can find regarding the location of the Mushroom Kingdom in the grand scheme of the universe. They have a few adventures together across some of these planets, but perhaps that'll be a story for another time…Eventually, after about a year of wandering the recesses of space, the two happen upon a planet where the citizens mention something of an alien who went to the Mushroom Kingdom and successfully lived after a battle against the Elemental Overlord. Curious to know more about this alien, the two head off to said planet which was close by…_

_Next Time: Bringing Things Back to the Present_


	29. Side-Story Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Pushing Forward for the Answers**

_From the knowledge Joe Dark and Chaos Alex gained regarding the mysterious alien, they crossed a few thousand miles of space to reach the planet where they supposedly live. However, the two of them forget to take into consideration the fact that they are heading right down onto an alien world…So far they had not run into any problems with having human bodies, since most of the worlds they went to had humans on them in a large majority, and thus they didn't really look off in the slightest when they did run into aliens._

_But here, this world is compromised entirely of aliens. Humans showing up is a very, VERY foreign concept to the aliens on this world, and thus without any foresight of consideration of subtlety the two drop right onto the surface of the planet and right into the middle of a populated city. All of the aliens, who had cone-shaped bodies with noodle-y limbs, thumb-shaped heads, and differing but oddly shaped ears on top of their heads, immediately looked at Joe Dark and Chaos Alex's appearance and were left with their mouths agape for a good few seconds._

_Joe Dark didn't really notice this at first and instead focused on the environment. Most of the buildings in this area were shaped like orbs, cubes and triangles and spread across the canyon walls, with staircases between them allowing for easy access to each one. The sky was brown-ish orange, and there was a noticeable lack of oxygen in the atmosphere…Not that the two needed it, of course. "What an odd planet…And an odd group of aliens, certainly…" Joe Dark said before looking down at the aliens, finding it quite curious that they look the way they do._

_Before Joe Dark could say anything, the aliens suddenly erupted into rioting cries of panic, leaving Joe Dark with a rather dull look on his face as he lifted his right hand up slowly, and with some of the aliens screaming "Monsters! Monsters! Help!" It wasn't long until Chaos Alex slanted his eyebrows a pretty in subtle annoyance of the situation and murmured "…I get the feeling we are not going to have an easy time finding that alien…"_

_Clenching his raised hand into a fist, Joe Dark grit his teeth a little and said in a disbelieving tone "How could anyone that looks like these cowering noodle limbed aliens possibly stand up to Whiter…? I must admit, it's rather…insulting to know that the person we are looking for survived against him while we didn't." "Well, perhaps we will find the answer soon enough…" Chaos Alex remarked while standing perfectly still in place._

"_How do we even start?" Joe Dark said, paying little attention to the panic on the dry roads of the city, even when a couple aliens crash their flying saucer cars into each other and cause a massive explosion. "Hmmm, perhaps the aliens sticking pikes against our backs would be able to tell us something…" Chaos Alex dryly remarked while closing his eyelids, followed by Joe Dark glancing over his right shoulder and noticing a couple of aliens with blatant royal garb and silver pikes in their hands as they stick it against Joe Dark and Chaos Alex's backs._

"_Alien life forms! Y-You are under arrest for disrupting the peace! Just come with us quietly to the p-palace, and we won't harm you." One of the guards said, being clearly nervous to the point that the pike was shaking against Joe Dark's back as well. Chaos Alex glanced at Joe Dark and asked him "So…Should we resist?" _

"_I must admit, this is the first time someone has wanted to arrest us…It's actually kind of humorous that they are calling us aliens too." Joe Dark said before humoring quietly but eerily, leading to one of the aliens hesitantly pushing the tip of the pike into his back a little. Joe Dark widened his eyes afterwards and then remarked as he slowly turned himself around and grinned "I must admit, I'm actually getting a bit of a rise out of this…"_

"_D-Don't try anything!" One of the alien guards said while looking right into the creepy look of joy one Joe Dark's face, and Chaos Alex looked dryly at Joe Dark from over the shoulder wondering why he was so happy before the boy looked at the aliens guards and remarked happily "I am imagine I'll never get a chance to say this again, so please…" he then leaned forward slightly and widened his eyes to the point where his pupils shrunk, leading to him finishing his sentence off with a drawn out "Take me to your leader, hehehe…"_

_As the alien guards gulp at the dark vibe coming from Joe Dark's body, the boy leans back and then places his hands in his pockets while he nudges as Chaos Alex to signal to him to just go with the flow for now. "I feel as though we're just wasting our time going along with this…." Chaos Alex remarked with a sigh afterwards, and Joe Dark casually mentioned to his ally "Relax. At least we're doing something a little different on this planet…"_

_After the two had relaxed themselves to the situation, the alien guards took them through the canyon lands of this strange planet until they reached a very, VERY large palace that looks incredibly unlike everything else on the planet, with it having the aesthetics of a normal palace from the Earth. It stretched up as tall as the canyon walls, had many towers and windows, and sparkled brightly from the particular choice of colors used. Joe Dark actually had to blink a little from how bright it was, at least until his eyes adjusted to it by the time the guards brought them up the staircase and through the palace doors._

"…_The palace certainly looks a lot different than most of the buildings here. I suppose the ruler of this odd race would certainly use most of the money to make a palace of this nature…" Joe Dark remarked, though sounding a little bit annoyed at how the palace was likely created. Nevertheless, soon enough the two were brought through a large corridor with a luxurious blue carpet, eventually being brought at the bottom of a staircase leading up to a throne. On this throne was an alien with a thick bushy mustache covering all of his mouth, and on his two ears was a solid gold crown each. He was garbed in a very fluffy green robe as he sat on his throne._

_The two guards stood in front of the "prisoners" and remarked "K-King Arpeggio, we found some alien life forms causing panic in the middle of the capital…What do you want us to do with them?" The King raised one of his red gloved hands to his left crown and tugged on his ear from within, his way of contemplating the situation as he then said with a guffaw "Ho ho…A couple of aliens you say? And just what were they doing to cause panic?"_

"_Umm…They landed on our planet." One of the guards said, and the King remarked afterwards in a humored tone "Oh? And you managed to procure their spaceship?" The guards looked at each other and then at the king, telling him in a rather awkward manner "Umm…Actually sir, with all due respect for your ability to believe our crazy stories…They didn't actually have a space ship. They just dropped down from the sky, almost like they were flying."_

"_We were flying. That should've been obvious." Chaos Alex dryly commented, and one of the alien guards turned back and said "N-No speaking without being spoken to, prisoners!" "Now calm down my honorable guards…We haven't judged them to be enemies of the Zedargon Empire. Tell me my currently judged neutral guests…What are your names?" King Arpeggio inquired in an intrigued manner as he laid his hands against the arms of his chairs._

_Joe Dark surprisingly laid a hand against his chest and respectfully bowed his head forward before remarking "I am Joe Dark." Chaos Alex paused for a moment, for he didn't exactly know what to call himself in the face of another person. Joe Dark opened his eyelids slightly and said through the mind of the dark clone "I know it will pain you to do so, but just use Whiter's name for now." _

_Chaos Alex grumbled at that idea, but then looked at the King and quietly said "…My name is Alex." "Alex and Joe Dark? Hmmm, I'm going to ignore the matter of your last name for now and welcome you to my kingdom…I must admit, it's not very often we get a new type of alien at our doorstep, especially one that doesn't require a space ship to fly. If you don't mind, I need to consult with my advisor on this matter." The King then clapped to the left while Joe Dark politely remarked "Oh go right ahead, we aren't in a rush…"_

"_I thought we were…Why are we wasting time with this again?" Chaos Alex whispered, and Joe Dark said quietly in response "Because, the person we are looking for is somewhere on this planet. If we can earn the good-will of the king, I'm sure he will tell us where they are. Remember, we're better than Whiter, we don't need to force them to help us out." _

"_I suppose, but after a year of wandering around my patience is starting to run a little thin…" Chaos Alex remarked, and Joe Dark chuckled a bit at that and said "One year is not at all comparable of the few I spent…But I see your point. If you want, you're welcome to just leave me for the moment and take your frustration out on some asteroids outside the atmosphere, but I think I'd stick around if I were you." _

"_How come?" Chaos Alex inquired with a brief glance to the right, and Joe Dark turned his head to the corridor that the advisor was coming out of and grinned while remarking "Because this planet seems to have some very interesting inhabitants…" The interesting being in question was the one called Mr. Reality, though at this point in time he had not introduced himself as such. The alien walked out of the corridor with his eye closed and his hands held close to his royal blue cape, stating in a friendly manner as he did so "Forgive me for being a couple seconds Arpeggio, I was busy-"_

_As he made it to the corridor, Mr. Reality slowly opened his eyelid and looked at the two "prisoners", which caused him to suddenly pause in place and give them a prolonged glare before momentarily choking on his own words, letting out a quick cough that caught the King's attention and made him remarking jovially "Oh dear, are you doing ok my friend?" Mr. Reality quickly perked his head up and said in as much of a composed tone as he could "I seem to have caught a fly in my throat. Ahem…Sooo then, what's going on here?"_

_Mr. Reality keeps walking until he was at the staircase, while Chaos Alex noted the reaction and whispered "Is it just me, or does that alien seem familiar with us?" Joe Dark folded his arms together and grinned, whispering to the dark clone "That IS interesting…Though I wonder, why does he not have any limbs or a body? Hehehe, I think we have found our guy…"_

_Mr. Reality goes to the middle of the staircase and then looks up at the King, turning to look at the two prisoners for just a moment as the King states "I'm in a bit of a pickle here. A couple of aliens have shown up on our planet, and I don't know what to do with them. They seem like nice guys, but I could also be wrong…Should I throw them in a jail cell? Invite them for dinner? Send them on a shopping spree and judge their morality on their clothing choices?" Mr. Reality lifted a hand up and said "I suppose you aren't wrong to call them aliens from our perspective, but I'll have you know that they are humans…In some sense of the word."_

"_Humans? Oh my goodness, that's right! You met a few humans when you went to that odd planet called Plit, didn't you?" The King inquired, and Mr. Reality flinched a little bit and subtly moved a finger across where his neck should be before the King went on to lean back and said "And what the name of that human you fought again? The Elemen-" "Sir!" Mr. Reality chose to be more vocal about his objections to the story, confusing the King greatly._

_Mr. Reality quickly walked up to the top of the staircase and stood beside the King, whispering things into his ear for a few seconds while the King slowly nodded his head and looked quite interested in what was being said until the very end, at which point he suddenly proclaimed "No way! You're telling me we're in the presence of the new Dark King?!" Mr. Reality snapped back and grit his teeth as he remarked "You weren't supposed to blurt it out!" _

"_T-The Dark King?!" The two guards simultaneously remarked while slowly creaking their heads back to look at Joe Dark, who nonchalantly lifted his right hand up and waved the fingers forward, watching as the two aliens widened their eyes and then dropped their pikes, running around in a panic mere moments later while exclaiming that judgment day had come and their lives were over until they rammed into each other and fell down unconscious. The King however, spread his arm out and exclaimed happily "Well why didn't you say so sooner?! I'd absolutely be DELIGHTED if you were to have dinner with me!" _

_Mr. Reality looked blankly at his friend and said bluntly "Arpeggio…Are you serious?" The King quickly replied "Well of course I am! Why should I be afraid? If the Dark King wanted us dead, he'd have done so already." Joe Dark stepped forward over the two guards and said to the King with a grin on his face "Of course. Truth be told, I'm not even willing to acknowledge that I am the Dark King anyways. I may have his powers, but I wish not to take up his role."_

"_Forgive me if I remain a bit skeptical there." Mr. Reality remarked, and Joe Dark looked at the alien and said to him "Well I suppose you have that right…But so long as we talking about skepticism here, I am quite curious to learn just how you know about me and my companion." Mr. Reality paused in place and closed his eyelid slightly while groaning internally._

"_Oh? You're familiar with them, my good friend?" The King remarked, and Mr. Reality said in response "I heard about them on the planet I went to…But I've never directly met them though, honestly." The King then extended his left hand out and patted Mr. Reality on the back of the head, telling him while holding back his excitement "Ah yes, I suppose you had plenty of time to learn about the Dark King while you were playing that game of yours with the Elemental Overlord."_

"…_As your advisor and your friend, I think it would be a good idea to not say anything more about the Elemental Overlord." Mr. Reality suggested, and the King bobbed his head twice before putting on a bright smile and proclaiming happily "Quite true, quite true! So I think it would be our best interests if you went with the Dark King and talked with him, because I'm starting to get the feeling that he came here to see you, hohoho!" _

"_Well, I suppose that wouldn't be the worst of our options. Not the best either, but this sudden appearance of the Dark King has caught me entirely off-guard…Fine, I will go along with this plan. I'd say don't worry about yourself my friend, but I have no clue just what the Dark King plans to do here…" Mr. Reality remarked, and as he descended down the staircase to meet with the two the King said to him "I'm not worried. I know you can handle the both of them if they decide to give you trouble!"_

"…" _Mr. Reality just sighed a bit at that remark and then stood before Joe Dark, looking up at the boy as he grinned and saying to him "So what shall it be? Are you going to demand something from me, or will I be the one in 'charge'?" Joe Dark looked at the alien and replied with "I have some questions for you…But lets go for a walk, I'd rather not have the King listening in, since you seem to have told him quite a lot…" _

"_Fair enough. I wish to not cause any trouble for my race." Mr. Reality said, followed by him walking past Joe Dark and making his way for the palace doors. Along the way, he laid a hand to the side of his head and groaned a bit in pain as his eye twitched. "See? We're getting somewhere after all." Joe Dark said as he turned around and gestured an arm out to Chaos Alex, who followed him out of the palace while remarking with a tiny bit of dry sarcasm "…It only took a year…"_

"_Hehe…You will learn patience in due time, my partner in Whiter's destruction…" Joe Dark remarked after making it out of the palace, and before they were down the staircase Mr. Reality said to the two "I can't believe you both are alive…When I had gone to the planet of Plit, you were a skeleton buried under the rubble of the Overlord's temple, and your companion there was basically non-existent…"_

"_Why do you know so much about us? Lets start off with something like that…" Joe Dark quickly inquired, and Mr. Reality paused for a moment at the bottom of the staircase and let out a sigh before turning himself around and levitating off the ground. Upon revealing this little trick, Mr. Reality looked at the two beings of darkness and said to them while giving a blunt glare "I'm not going to be dishonest here. The reason I was surprised and a bit frightened by your appearance here is not just because you were dead last I heard, but because I had used your corpse as a puppet to combat and test Alex Whiter's clone, Mew." _

_Joe Dark was more fascinated by this answer than he was insulted, and with a wiggle of his fingers against his chin as he put himself in a state of thought he remarked "Fascinating…So you are a necromancer then?" Mr. Reality shook his head and explained "Not at all…I am actually a reality bender. As in I was able to make it so your body was reanimated to act exactly like you would have, all without having to pull your soul back from the dead."_

"_A reality bender you say? …And yet even with that, you somehow lost to Whiter's clone of all people?" Joe Dark inquired, finding the words of the alien to be rather insulting considering how the nature of his power should work. Mr. Reality shook his head a little more and then said "Getting into the specifics of what happened there would take me a while. Simply put, he happened to have the one thing that could counter my powers…"_

"_Hmph, evil me and his kin seem to always find some way to gain advantage over anyone that opposes them…" Chaos Alex remarked with some disdain in his voice, and Mr. Reality then looked at Joe Dark and told him "To answer your earlier question…I also know a lot about your histories because I used my powers to learn about them…And I will say right now that I am sorry for using your body for my purposes."_

_Joe Dark widened his grin to obscene levels of eeriness and remarked "Did you expect me to be defended? At least you tried to use my body to kill Whiter and his clone…It may have failed, but I can still give you points for effort. I am quite surprised though that you'd have some fear towards us though, if reality is basically your play thing." Mr. Reality sighed and scratched the side of his head, saying to Joe Dark afterwards "Now that's not as complicated to explain…"_

_Mr. Reality told Joe Dark and Chaos Alex afterwards "There was a time where I was far too nonchalant with my powers. I played with reality like it was a simple fiddle, and tried to play a game with the Elemental Overlords in order to entertain myself…It was a regretful time for me, and I learned a valuable lesson from Mew after he defeated me and undid all of my accursed mistakes. However, there was one thing he could not save me from, at least not at the moment…"_

_Pointing at his head, Mr. Reality said "A subconscious virus known as the Parakali is stuck within my, well, subconscious…It is limiting my ability to use my reality bending powers. I can do some simple things with my power still, but putting up resistance against the both of you will strain my mind and allow the Parakali to dig deeper until they eventually control me again…And let me say, I NEVER want to let that happen again." _

"_You're taking a big risk by telling us all this…Sounds like there's nothing stopping us from killing you and destroying this planet since you are useless to us." Joe Dark nonchalantly remarked with a wily grin on his face as he put darkness into his right hand, and Mr. Reality glared right at Joe Dark's face and told him bluntly "Arpeggio is right about one thing with you…If you planned to kill us, you would have already. Your enemy is and always shall be Alex Whiter and anyone related to him…You won't kill me."_

"_Brave words…" Joe Dark said with a bit of a chuckle afterwards, and Mr. Reality remarked in turn "I may not be able to fully use my powers, but I'm not going to be a coward. I ran away from my problems once before…I refuse to ever do that again." Joe Dark lowered his hand after engaging in a short staredown with the alien, remarking with an honest tone of voice "I must admit, you're growing on me…What is your name?"_

_Surprised that Joe Dark didn't retaliate with his annihilation, Mr. Reality blinked twice and then said in a suspecting tone "…These days I go by the name of Mr. Reality." "Mister, eh? So is there a Mrs. Reality?" Joe Dark inquired, leading to the alien replying "…I do have a wife…And three kids to be exact."_

_Joe Dark closed his eyelids a little bit upon hearing that and saying "…So you have a family…" His voice was subdued and rather empathetic to Mr. Reality's words, and the alien widened his eye a little and let out a confused remark before Joe Dark looked at him and said with a relaxed expression on his face "…My plan in coming here was to ask you to guide us back to Plit, perhaps even have you assist us in killing Whiter…But if your powers are gimped and you have a family here waiting for you to come back every night, then it's in your best interest to forget that we ever had this conversation. We'll take our leave and just find our way to Whiter on our own."_

"…_So it really was a waste of time here to come to this planet, is that what you are saying?" Chaos Alex remarked as Joe Dark turned himself around, and Joe Dark nodded his head and replied "Whatever, right? It's just another step on the road to killing Whiter for good…" Joe Dark prepared to take off from the ground just like that, but all of a sudden Mr. Reality raised his right hand up and exclaimed "Wait a minute!"_

_Joe Dark paused and looked over his shoulder, where Mr. Reality put on a serious expression and said "I've misjudged you, Joe Dark. If you want to, you and your companion are welcome to come home with me and have dinner with my family." Pausing at this offer, Joe Dark thinks to himself for a few moments until Chaos Alex closed his eyelids and begrudgingly said "You and I both know you're just going to say yes…You better owe this up to me by finding evil me quickly after this, Joe Dark." _

"_Heheh, I can't make any promises there, obviously." Joe Dark said as he turned around to look at Mr. Reality, saying to him kindly "Very well, I suppose we can stick around for a quick meal. I haven't had to eat for a very long time, but alien cuisine is not a bad way to have for the first meal in a while." Mr. Reality thanks the two for sticking around with a nod of his head before then taking the two back into the palace, revealing that him and his family live within there while simultaneously explaining to the King that things were ok. _

_After a quick trip through the bright corridors of the palace, Mr. Reality opened a door to the part of the palace that was his home. The first thing inside was a humble living room with a curvy glass table and chairs that were shaped to conform to the odd bodies of the aliens that live here. There was a hovering TV screen to the left of the door that bobbed up and down slightly and seemed to have a rubbery frame. The area was quite bright thanks to the walls being painted pearly white along with the lights on the ceiling._

"_Honey, I'm back from work for today! I brought some guests home with me!" Mr. Reality proclaimed, and all of a sudden a somewhat shrill feminine voice calls out across the house with "Welcome back dear! Kids! Go say hi to your daddy while I clean my hands up!" Joe Dark cringed for a moment and thought to himself "Good god, what the hell was that noise?!"_

_But the cringing at the voice is quickly replaced when Joe Dark hears a series of happy little voices saying the name "Daddy! Daddy!" at the same time, and the sounds of tiny feet clattering across the floor echoes through the room as Mr. Reality's kids run over to him. These kids were half the size of Mr. Reality himself, all of them wearing tiny rounded clothes and having bodies shaped almost like miniature beakers, and noticeably they have little bumps growing out of their heads instead of the funnel-shaped ears their father had. _

_The three kids leap up and down in front of their daddy, and Mr. Reality picks one of them up with his floating hand and lets them hang on the back of his head. He then picks his other two kids up by their undersides and holds them up, and as the kid on the back of his head wraps his noodle-y arms around he playfully places both of his hands together over Mr. Reality's eye while remarking "How was work today daddy? Did you do any good advisoring?" _

"_Hehe…I actually brought my work home with me today for once, Natalia. A couple of humans came to visit our planet, and I brought them home with me for dinner tonight." Mr. Reality remarked, and all three kids turned their heads to look at Joe Dark and Chaos Alex and immediately proclaimed at the same time "Wow! They look so cool!" Their reaction to the company in their house was actually very surprising from Joe Dark's perspective, while Chaos Alex just looked blankly at the alien children and briefly felt what could only be described as jealousy towards them._

_A heavy feeling in his heart led to Chaos Alex closing his eyelids slightly and sighing, a feeling that didn't get any better when Mr. Reality's wife came into the room and said "Settle down kids, or you'll hurt your father" in a motherly but still slightly shrill voice. The wife has a similar body to her husband with some thick lashes above and below his eye, and her ears are coiled like a spring. Otherwise her skin looks exactly the same as the rest of her race, with the only reason one would know she is a woman being her tone of voice…And even then that might not be a guarantee. _

_The wife and husband shared a kiss for a brief moment, and Mr. Reality said "It's no big deal…The kids aren't going to break my neck or anything, Camellia." Even so, the kids decided to get off of their father at that point and run over to Joe Dark and Chaos Alex, looking them over in awe while Camellia remarked "Who are you two guests, honey?"_

"_They are humans from another world. Their names are Joe Dark and…Alex." Mr. Reality said while gesturing behind himself, followed by his wife remarking "Humans huh? You mean like that Elemental Overlord guy you met on a business trip before? I hope you've given them a good tour of our planet dear, hehe." _

_Mr. Reality awkwardly glanced at his wife and told her "Ummm, yes…I gave them as good of a tour as I could. Showed them some of our mining facilities, our buildings, and some of our agricultural farms too. But now I brought them back here so they can have some of my wife's lovely cooking. I just hope they are able to digest alien food well…" Joe Dark noted the choice of words both lovers used and found them to be rather odd, especially since the King knew about Mr. Reality fighting Whiter's clone. He'd address that point later, as Mr. Reality's wife remarked "Hohoho, we'll see soon enough. Come on you two, you can sit at the table while I make dinner."_

_Joe Dark didn't wait long to start following the wife to the kitchen table, but Chaos Alex paused for a moment as Mr. Reality's kids were busy poking and tugging at his body all around. Looking down with a blank expression on his face at first, he saw the happy and curious looks on their faces, and his jealousy of them grew steadily. But he wasn't going to act on that jealousy, as that would be very petty of him to do so, and those kids don't deserve any hatred directed towards them for something they couldn't possibly be aware of._

_After a little bit of time letting the kids poke at him while he didn't answer any of their questions, Chaos Alex decided to join up with Joe Dark at the dinner table. He hadn't ever done anything like sit down and have dinner, so Joe Dark had to speak mentally at him in order to give directions just so he wouldn't get any questions from the wife. The chairs at the obtuse table were rounded out at the bottom to fit the undersides of the aliens, so it did require a little bit of adjusting on their companies' parts. _

_The foods that Mr. Reality's wife brought out were certainly…different. There was something that looked like moldy sponges with plenty of color on them, and apparently that's considered the bread on this planet. There was something resembling chicken legs on a plate, but they have wiggling tubes coming out from the bone that were pushing smoke out from within…According to Mr. Reality, that just means it's cooked and ready to eat. Joe Dark had his reservations about that explanation, but nevertheless decided to try the alien meat leg out._

_Chaos Alex had no qualms with the taste of the food, since he had actually never eaten anything before in his life before this point. To him, this alien cuisine was great, but for Joe Dark, who could remember the taste of human food quite well, it took a little bit more time to adjust to the flavor of this food. It was far different than anything Joe Dark would probably ever taste in his life, but at the very least he wasn't convulsing from eating this. In time, he actually began to enjoy it, remarking in a complimenting tone "Very fascinating, my good madam."_

"_Oh, you can call me Camellia, Joe Dark." The wife of Mr. Reality remarked with a joyous laugh, followed up by Joe Dark nodding his pyramid shaped glass filled with a gooey yellow liquid at the alien and putting a truthful smile on his face. After a little more eating, Joe Dark glanced at Mr. Reality and began to notice something. The faint feeling of darkness within Mr. Reality's subconscious was very clear, and whatever created the feeling was clearly scrambling around. "That's the Parakali parasite…Hmmm, if I can sense it, I wonder if I can affect it…"_

_While Joe Dark was busy focusing on the situation with Mr. Reality's parasite problem, Chaos Alex was asked by the wife "So what do you do, child?" Chaos Alex lifted his head up, and without Joe Dark paying attention enough to stop him he very clearly explained "I was created as a clone to follow my mom's wishes to kill everyone in the universe. I was killed by my evil me and then brought back to life at the same time as Joe Dark, and I spent some time learning to gain free will and realize that all I want to do is brutally murder my evil me so I can find peace."_

_Joe Dark quickly spits up his drink onto his plate as Mr. Reality's kids and his wife stare blankly at Chaos Alex, and Mr. Reality panicked for a few seconds until his wife suddenly widened her eyes and proclaimed "Oh how lovely! You're trying to redeem yourself by stopping your evil original! Well good on you, I hope you succeed!" The reaction was something entirely unexpected, and as the kids cheer Chaos Alex on much to his bewilderment Joe Dark buries his mouth in the cup he's holding and thinks to himself "What the HELL kind of reaction is that?! This family is bizarre…"_

"_I don't know, I think I like them…" Chaos Alex dryly remarked to communicate with Joe Dark through their thoughts, and Joe Dark glanced his way and mentally told him "You're lucky we didn't freak them out. Though since you like them so much, you might as well keep talking with them for now…I need to pull Mr. Reality off to the side and try something out with him."_

_Joe Dark then vocally remarked "Camellia, I would like to borrow your husband for a moment, if that's alright." Mr. Reality glanced at Joe Dark in surprise as his wife approved of the idea, and Mr. Reality got up from his seat and followed Joe Dark to another part of the house. They move to an area where the family wouldn't hear them, and Joe Dark leans against a wall and crosses his arms while remarking to the puzzled alien "So…A business trip, you say? Your wife has no idea of what you did, huh?"_

"…_To my wife and kids, I am a magician who goes by the name of Mr. Reality. They think I constantly wear invisible cloaks on my limbs and body as part of my job…I did some very selfish things with my powers, and after I returned to my home planet I made sure that my family knew nothing of my powers…I told the King because I wanted to make amends for my mistakes, and for as big of a mouth he has he has kept this a secret because he respects me and my family. I hate lying to them about this, but how exactly do you admit to your family that you have a parasite within your mind that could turn your powers against the universe if they are abused…"_

_After Mr. Reality explained himself, Joe Dark closed his eyelids a little and said "…There's something I have been meaning to ask you. You said that Whiter's clone hadn't fixed all of your problems 'at the moment'…Are you telling me that he made a vow to help you resolve your parasite problem?" "Yes he did, in fact. That was almost two years ago if I recall…Though I suppose I just had forgotten about that, plus…No wait a moment, I DID tell him what planet I lived on, and he still had access to that professor's Stargadd…" Mr. Reality remarked, coming to rub his chin in a matter of seconds._

"_Exactly. Whiter's clone made a promise to help you out…Aren't you the least bit curious to know if he's telling the truth or not? Something like that parasite is too important to ignore, after all." Joe Dark commented, with Mr. Reality saying afterwards "I'd love to have this parasite removed from my subconscious and never have to hide the truth from my family again…But there's no way I could leave my planet right now, and the amount of reality bending it would take to bypass that would-"_

"_Get the parasite to take over your body. Please…Stand still for a moment." Joe Dark then stood upright and raised his right hand up, focusing some of his darkness onto the part of Mr. Reality's subconscious where the parasites were housed and forcing them to heel. He then says to the alien "Try using your powers now…Do something noticeable but not too insane." His voice was a little bit tired due to actually putting a bit of effort into holding the parasites back._

_Mr. Reality widened his eye and then lifted his right hand up, and with a quick use of his power he suddenly created about a hundred statues of Joe Dark that filled up the hallway. Mr. Reality was quite surprised by this, and quickly made the statues vanish before his family would slip in and notice. "I-Impossible…" Mr. Reality remarked, and Joe Dark stopped using his darkness for a moment and remarked "…I-I cannot remove the parasites from your mind, they are too ingrained into it for my methods to work…But with some effort I can suppress them enough to allow you to use your powers."_

"…_You really want me to help you out, don't you?" Mr. Reality inquired, and Joe Dark closed his eyelids and admitted with honesty "It's ultimately your decision…The two of us won't ever find peace until we kill Whiter and possibly his clone too, but you will also never find true peace until those parasites are removed from your mind. Since in a way our goals are intertwined, we could only help each other out here. However, I'll acknowledge that you have a family here…If you don't want to risk your life, then you can stay. I will not force you to do anything…" _

_Mr. Reality puts on a contemplating expression for a few seconds before saying to Joe Dark "…I'll never know the answer unless I go and meet Mew again personally. Either he'll be on Plit, or he'll be back on his Earth…Joe Dark, there's a favor I want you to do for me first." Joe Dark nodded his head, and Mr. Reality said "If you can get your companion to come here without alerting my family, then do so. After he starts moving, I want you to focus all of the darkness you possibly can onto the Parakali to hold them back. There's something I must do with my powers…"_

_Joe Dark did exactly that, and Chaos Alex got up from the table under the guise of saying that he was going to check up on the two. Once Chaos Alex got close to the two, Joe Dark lifted his right hand up and focused as much as he could on the Parakali parasites while Mr. Reality held both of his hands out and whispered "I'll be back soon, my dear family…" As Joe Dark found himself straining his mind to the point of getting a bloody nose, Mr. Reality quickly used a large quantity of his reality-warping powers to release a shockwave across the entirety of his planet, one that would go unnoticed by everyone but himself and his two guests._

_When Mr. Reality's shockwave came to an end, he told Joe Dark to let go, and the very moment he did so the boy of darkness reeled back and hit the wall while feeling some pain coming from his head. Laying a hand against the side of his head, Joe Dark remarked "T-Those parasites put up a good fight…S-So what did you do?" Mr. Reality closed his eyelid and remarked in a melancholy voice "…I have frozen my planet in cryogenic stasis. Every last person besides myself and you two are now unable to move, and not even the planet itself will continue it's rotation for now. Only when I step back down on this planet will time resume again…"_

"_Why did you choose to do that?" Chaos Alex inquired, and Mr. Reality opened his eyelid and glanced at both of his guests before explaining in a melancholic tone "…As a cost of having my reality-bending powers, I am now immortal. I will outlive my family, I will outlive the king…I will outlive every generation of my race from now until the end of time. So at the very least, I want to be able to spend every waking second I possibly can with the world as is before my wife passes away…After that, I don't know what I'll do."_

_Mr. Reality then looked up at Joe Dark and smiled, telling him happily "Thank you for doing this for me though. I really have misjudged you…" Joe Dark wiped the blood from his face and then remarked "N-Not a problem. I wish I could remove the parasites entirely, but that requires a much different set of powers than what I am capable of…"_

"_I'll take what I can get here. So…It seems right now our best bet for finding Alex Whiter and Mew is to head to Plit. Either we'll find them their, or they will be back on their Earth." Mr. Reality said while raising a hand to his head, using his powers to create a small glass helmet around his head, and Joe Dark remarked "I suppose it would be better than using my powers to suppress the parasites enough to bring us directly to where they are at. After all…I need all of my strength to combat and kill Whiter."_

"_Thankfully, I do remember where we have to go to reach Plit…It'll be a few hundred light years trip, so it'll take us some time to get there." Mr. Reality commented, and Chaos Alex sighed and said "I suppose I should just be used to waiting by now…" "Yes, but we're getting there…Soon enough Whiter…I'll bring an end to your life, and finally I'll be at peace…"_

Joe Dark ends his little trip down memory lane with that remark in his mind, and as he stares down Riku across the grassland he creaks into a widened grin and thinks to himself _"Two years…Two years it has been since I freed myself from that ship. You're the last obstacle standing between me and my revenge, clone of a clone…"_

Joe Dark makes the first move, sprinting across the grassland and putting himself directly in front of Riku, swinging his dagger upward and clashing it with Riku's double-helix sword. This releases energy around their feet and burns away a small circle of grass, and as Joe Dark locked the dagger against Riku's blade he grit his teeth into a grin and said with a frenzied look in his eyes "It's been a long time since I've gotten to do this. Let us both feel alive today, kin of Whiter!" Riku responded while staying completely calm and igniting an aura of fire around his body "No matter how strong your resolve is, Dark King…I will send you back to Hell myself!"

_Next Time: Chaos Reigns_


	30. Side-Story Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Suppression of the Flames**

After their brief clash, Joe Dark and Riku split off from one another, with Riku going back ten feet as Joe Dark tried to quickly perform a backhanded slash with his dagger. Riku pulls his left hand back and pulls flames into his palm while spreading his legs a little on the ground, waiting a few seconds before thrusting his hand out to send a large ball of burning fire at his foe. Joe Dark grinned and held his hands out while standing still, backing up a little while Chaos Alex countered Riku's attack with a black fireball of equal strength, but he also fired a couple others above that fireball to target Riku.

Chaos Alex landed on the ground as Riku cut through the fireballs with a quick swipe of his sword. While Chaos Alex moved forward and used his monochrome sword to get into a brief clash with Riku, Joe Dark held his right hand back and focused some of his darkness on the parasites in Mr. Reality's mind. He'd be able to keep up this light amount of pressure while continuing his battle, and now Mr. Reality could fight as well. Coming up with some ideas on how to assist, Mr. Reality holds his hands out and stays a good distance away from Riku while hovering in mid-air, since his defenses were not strong enough to handle direct conflict.

Riku clashed with Chaos Alex for a few more seconds while Mr. Reality prepared his reality-bending powers, and after colliding blades Riku flips his around so he can slip Chaos Alex's sword through the top hole in his blade and hold the boy in place because of that while he charged his left fist with powerful lightning and thrust it into the side of his foe's body with a swift hook. But upon connecting the punch Riku feels something hard pressing against his knuckles that did not at all resemble skin, and it didn't take long to recognize that Chaos Alex hardened his skin with metal to protect himself.

The dark clone glared down at Riku with a cold air around his body, remarking in a somewhat bitter tone "I've had plenty of time to figure out how to face all of you, evil me…" Riku had to acknowledge that point quickly as he pulled back his fist and dispelled his sword to get it out of Chaos Alex's blade quickly, and as he moved a few feet back he was suddenly assaulted by some distorted orbs of energy launched by Mr. Reality. For a brief moment, Riku watches as his vision swirls and his perception of the world in front of him becomes warped, only for it all to stabilize just as quickly as the effect occurred.

Riku knew the reality bender had done something to him, but he instinctively just raised his right hand up and summoned his sword. However, what caught him off-guard for a moment was that he saw that his left hand was raised and he summoned his sword in that. His mind suffered a moment of incomprehensible strain before he realized that Mr. Reality had reversed his sight, but because he had spent just a moment figuring this out Joe Dark was able to take advantage of it to slip behind Riku and slash him across his back.

This broke the reversed vision Riku had to endure with a sharp, static-y veil in his eyes but had him feel the cold darkness of Joe Dark's dagger cut into his flesh a mere millimeter. "Hmm…My precision is a little off, but I suppose this is good enough…" Joe Dark remarked with a grin as Riku flinched a little from the cut. Riku quickly glanced at the foes close to him and then thrust his fist against the ground to crack it hard and then erupted a plume of dirt to cover himself and his opponents while he put some distance away from them.

Chaos Alex quickly raised his hand up and created a powerful gale to blow the dirt away, but Riku had already positioned himself in the air twenty feet away and charged his sword with fire and lightning. Swiping it out, Riku sent multiple crescent blades of the two elements combined together at his foes, filling the air with them to make it harder for his foes to move around. All the while, Riku was trying to figure out where Mr. Reality had gone off to. Unknown to him at the moment though, the alien had used his powers to make himself invisible.

Joe Dark leaps away from the barrage of projectiles and readies his dagger with darkness in it while Chaos Alex flew through the projectiles without any care in the world, using an aura of black flames to burn them apart as he made his way towards Riku. Riku moved his sword in front of his chest and ignited it with flames to prepare for his foe, but Joe Dark threw the darkness from his dagger so Chaos Alex could catch it into his sword while it was ignited with black flames, which made the flames burst out from the blade until they were twice the size of the user's body, leading to him swinging his sword out to unleash a gargantuan wave of black flames.

Riku knew not to tackle the attack head-on, but the size of the flames made it difficult to get out of the way at time. Descending down a little, Riku slashed his sword upward and put a big enough gash in the black flames to give himself room to avoid the attack from there before it strikes. But then a large shadow is cast over Riku's body as the black flames pass overhead, and Riku looks up to see a gigantic mountain being dropped down onto him. This had to have been Mr. Reality's doing, since Chaos Alex was too focused on the black flames to perform this move.

Riku pushes himself upward and spins his sword around rapidly, turning it into a drill that allowed him to move through the mountain as fast as he could. However, within the mountain there was a hollow cavern, and once Riku reached that part of it Joe Dark suddenly punched right into this cavern and ambushed his foe with a straightforward punch to his chest. Riku is broken out of his concentration to get out of this mountain and slammed into the side of the cavern wall, and confines of this area making it so the impact echoed throughout the area.

The mountain slowly continued to fall from the sky as Joe Dark and Riku engaged each other within the cavern. Joe Dark covered himself in darkness and flew at Riku as the boy pulled himself from the cavern wall, and Joe Dark tried to stab Riku in the chest with his dagger. Riku clamped his hands together in front of his body to catch the dagger before it struck, trying to apply some seismic force to it in order to break the dagger apart, only to find that it has no flaws to exploit.

Quickly, Joe Dark lays a hand on the back of his dagger and presses onward, pushing Riku back against the wall of the cavern as he grins and flares his body up with darkness to show the amount of strength he is using into his efforts. "My dagger is born of darkness, clone of Whiter…It's not some simple metal you can break with your powers." Joe Dark explained as the tip of his dagger inched very close to Riku's chest. Riku still didn't say anything to his foe as he focused entirely on the battle, trying to come up with something that would get him out of this situation.

Glancing back a little, Riku quickly comes presses his back against the wall and lifts his legs up, kicking Joe Dark hard in the gut with all of his might to push him away before the dagger could even touch his skin. Riku then bent his legs and kicked himself off of the wall to fly at Joe Dark, taking out his sword and actually landing the first hit on his foe by slashing across his stomach with the tip of his blade. Blood is loosened from the body from the slit, and Joe Dark reacted not with shock but rather an eerie laugh as he countered the second slash from Riku by bringing his dagger down and stabbing the middle of the helixes.

Riku's arms are forced down from that attack, with Joe Dark remarking as he lifted his left hand up and charged darkness into a sphere "Oh how I missed this feeling…" He then fired off the sphere straight at Riku's face, with there only being a split-second for him to raise his sword up and cut through it. Gritting his teeth a little, Riku sensed that the mountain was finally impacting the ground, and as it did it began to shatter apart all around him. Riku flew back a bit and then swung his sword out a couple times to fire some waves of flame at Joe Dark, both of them failing to hit due to his quick movements.

However, Riku followed up on that by charging right at Joe Dark and ramming his right shoulder into him while it was charged with lightning, sending at least a million volts through the boy's body as he's launched back into the crumbling cavern wall. But Joe Dark rebounds off of the wall with little damage taken to his body and chuckles so more before using his dagger to rip a gash into the air in front of him much like Riku would in his Chaos Form and slip through it quickly as the mountain crumbles apart entirely around Riku. Riku was confused as to why Joe Dark would leave that way for but a few seconds until he looked up and saw the glow of black flames coming his way via a sphere of darkness created by Chaos Alex. The sphere was half of the size of the mountain, but had far, FAR more destructive power as it exploded right in front of Riku's face and completely consumed the remains of the mountain and the ground below it in a pillar of bright white and black flames.

The attack obliterated the ground below Riku, leaving a chasm that very likely could reach the core of the planet if Chaos Alex so wanted to do so. Joe Dark reappears from the darkness beside Chaos Alex, whose hands were black with flames from the aftermath of his attack, and remarked as he laid a hand on his right shoulder "Good work. But we both know it's not over yet." Chaos Alex replied coldly as he held his right hand out in front of Joe Dark and summoned his sword "I would've taken out the planet if I had used anymore power…"

"We should avoid that." Joe Dark remarked as he held his right hand up and watched as the energies from Chaos Alex's attack faded out, and Riku flew out of it with some damage across his body. He had cushioned most of the damage with a shield of fire, and Riku was more bothered by the heavy damage done to the planet than what happened to his body. Brushing some blood from the side of his mouth, Riku looked at his two visible opponents and remarked "You're just going to get the attention of the heroes of this world with that wanton destruction."

"You're underestimating my intelligence here, clone of Whiter." Joe Dark said while mockingly tapping the side of his head and grinning, mentioning to Riku afterwards "I had our alien friend warp reality to make it so our battle will go unnoticed by anyone but us. If you want to go all-out, you're more than welcome to…In fact, I URGE you to try your very best."

Riku remarked while glancing his eyes around in search of anything that would suggest Mr. Reality's presence "No thanks. I can beat you three without harming the planet." Riku commented while slowly moving his sword towards the right of his body, detecting a faint sensation coming in that direction before he utilizes the dirt on the ground to create a tornado from it towards that sensation, and sure enough he covers a figure shaped like Mr. Reality with the dirt mere moments later. Joe Dark snickered a little and then shook his head, moving his hand away from Chaos Alex's shoulder as he said "Just like the others…You're always so SURE of yourself."

After a few seconds, the figure representing Mr. Reality fades away, revealing that it was an invisible decoy created to throw Riku off. Joe Dark then leaned his head back and remarked casually as he stepped forward a bit on the air "So how sure can you act when you don't even know what to do?" Joe Dark then flipped his dagger around with his fingers and then gripped it backhanded in his right hand, before giving a joyous grin and charging right at Riku again.

While raising his sword up to defend himself from Joe Dark's scathing slash, Riku starts to evaluate the situation the battle has presented to him. He realized quickly that he had no idea who to target first in this battle. Mr. Reality had to be somewhere close by, there's no way he'd risk manipulating reality when he had no idea what his allies were doing, and it seemed that there was no mental connection between Joe Dark and Mr. Reality minus the fact that the parasites were being kept in line.

Riku swung his sword twice to push Joe Dark's arm back farther and farther each time while he still kept hold of the dagger, and when an opening presented itself Riku pulled up a large chunk of the ground and threw it past the left side of his body to strike his foe. The rock broke apart upon impact but knocked Joe Dark back, only for Chaos Alex to take the reins of the battle for a moment by coating the rocks in black flames and conforming them into meteorites to throw straight at Riku.

Riku swung his sword in front of his body and released his "grip" on it a bit to place it directly in front of him and spin it around rapidly to create a gigantic tornado capable of rending all of the meteors apart with the blades within the tornado. Chaos Alex created a large wall of wind to protect himself and his visible ally from the attack, and as Riku pulled his sword back he thought about Chaos Alex's involvement in the battle. He was probably the biggest threat, since he could counteract most of Riku's powers with ease.

Riku knew he was not in a situation where he could easily switch to his Chaos Form and gain the advantage over Alex Whiter's dark clone, especially once Joe Dark flew at him again and thrust his dagger at his chest. Joe Dark's moves were predictable for one so insane, but Riku still kept his caution up at all times because he was the strongest of the trio by far. Riku is quickly forced to move his left hand out and summon forth a second sword made of pure flames when Chaos Alex flew behind him and swung his black flaming sword his way.

Pressed between his two opponents, Riku was prepared to launch a counterattack when all of a sudden Joe Dark summoned another dagger in his other hand and stabbed it straight into Riku's right shoulder, a bit of the blade's tip coming out from the back of Riku's body along with a few droplets of blood before Riku widens his eyes and decides to speed up his counterattack, unleashing a large burst of lighting from all directions around his body to repel his foes. Some of the lightning actually manages to pierce through his foe's bodies, making them flinch as they fly out of the way.

Riku dispels the flaming sword and uses his hand to pull the dagger from his shoulder, throwing it off to the side while feeling a sharp pain rise through his nerves. He wasn't going to let this pain slow him down in this fight, and he glared at Joe Dark and quickly flew at him to take advantage of him being distracted by the lightning attack from before. With a swing of his sword that had a slight delay, Riku managed to deal another cut across Joe Dark's chest despite the boy moving to the right to try and get out of the way.

At this point, Riku realized how he needed to handle this battle. He had to break Joe Dark's concentration on the parasites so Mr. Reality, being as cautious as he was in regards to not overdoing it with his powers, would be forced to drop his invisibility until Joe Dark could focus his darkness on the parasites again. But Riku felt confident that he could knock Mr. Reality unconscious before that would happen. He didn't plan to kill the alien, since out of the three he was clearly the nicest of the bunch, even if he did admit that he'd allow Mew to be killed if a sufficient answer wasn't given.

With two scars in his body and some damage brought on by lightning, Joe Dark stumbled back a bit and grinned, chuckling at the efforts Riku put into battle before he widened his eyes and remarked "Good, GOOD…You're giving me a good time here! This will be a nice practice run for my true fight against Whiter and your brother!" Joe Dark didn't stay stunned for long and he quickly drew a dagger between all of his fingers and clenched them tightly, swinging his hands out to throw them at Riku four at a time.

Riku deals with them either by deflecting them with his sword or swerving his body around, making sure to look for an opening in order to swing his left hand out and send a slicing blade of wind to try and further the damage to Joe Dark's scars. Chaos Alex went between Joe Dark and Riku and tanked the wind scar with his own body, only taking a little bit of damage to his skin while he drew his sword and remarked quietly "He's trying to distract you so you won't concentrate on the alien…Heal up a bit, I'll hold him off."

While Chaos Alex gripped his sword tightly and glared fiercely into Riku's look of surprise, Joe Dark chuckled and said "You think I'm not aware of that? Focus on holding him back, and keep your suspicions to our thoughts. You should know that all Whiters take advantage of whatever opportunity they can…" Chaos Alex ignites his sword with black flames as Joe Dark retreated, saying in response to that "I'm not worried…What can he possibly do when I know all of his powers?"

Chaos Alex quickly swung his sword out as hard as he could at Riku, and even with him raising his own sword in retaliation Riku was pushed back quite a few feet back upon clashing blades, with shockwaves of black fire erupting across the air before Chaos Alex sprinted forward and went for another powerful slash. Riku gauged the strength of the attack and coated his own sword in fire and swung it out to clash against Chaos Alex's force, locking blades with him for a few seconds while shockwaves of flame spread out across the air.

Riku tried to bypass his foe's blade by summoning a sword of lightning in the grasp of his left hand and thrusting it towards Chaos Alex's gut, but the dark clone just creates his own out of red lightning and holds it horizontally across the front of his stomach to block the attack. With four blades locked in a six inch gap between both fighters, Riku paid attention to Chaos Alex's expression to see if there was any hints as to his next move so he could work against it and hopefully deal some damage to the dark clone in the process.

But Riku had to quickly admit that Chaos Alex could not be figured out, minus the fact that he showed nothing but disdain in his expression towards Riku. While he was going to spend some time locked in combat with these blades, Riku grit his teeth and asked the dark clone "You know, if you just decided not to harm my brother, I'd be more than willing to work with you three to kill your 'evil me'." Chaos Alex quickly and coldly replied with "All of you are the same…I am not making any exceptions here, regardless if you're a little more sane than the other two 'evil mes'."

Chaos Alex pushed a little harder with both of his swords, getting a little closer to Riku before he leaned his face close to the black flames of his original blade and remarked with an eerie glow projected against his face "Besides, you'd just kill us all the moment we did your dirty work for you." Riku glared at Chaos Alex and told him "I think it says a lot about how much I want to kill Alex Whiter that I'd be willing to work with all of you."

Pressing even further against Riku's swords, Chaos Alex remarked "Yes…It says how weak you truly are compared to evil me. You can't beat us…How could you ever hope to beat him?" Riku remarked in response to that as he glared at the dark clone and began to start pushing back "You're underestimating me then. You all lost to Alex Whiter or my brother years ago, and maybe you have gotten stronger…But so have we. We don't sit around waiting for power to come to us, we're always training to get stronger so we can deal with threats whether they are new or old."

Riku takes the electricity built up in his sword and makes it explode upon Chaos Alex before he could react, blowing him back while making him grumble a bit as his skin was singed through his clothes. Riku then pulls back and quickly swings his sword to launch a crescent wave of flames at the dark clone to strike him in the face and thus make him flinch and lurch his head back, with Riku then turning to the right and noticing that Joe Dark was hovering in place a good distance away with his wounds healing up.

Caring not about the dark clone for the moment, Riku dispels his sword and thrusts both of his hands out one after the other, sending a large wave of frost through the air followed by making the ground erupt up as a pillar that curves and flew it's way towards Joe Dark. The dark boy just grinned at the efforts Riku made to try and harm him and let the attacks fly, knowing that he was covered by his alien ally. After a while of not doing anything, Mr. Reality quickly made his presence known again by summoning forth a series of powerful and holy laser beams from tears in the sky that bombard the battlefield.

The attacks Riku launched are ripped through with ease as Riku himself is left forced to evade the laser beams with very swift movements that left him getting farther away from Joe Dark than he would've appreciated, and even worse of all Chaos Alex flew through the beams of light without being harmed, showing that his movements were not limited thanks to Mr. Reality's manipulations. Riku spun himself around and blocked an attack from behind by coating his right arm in a thick metal and deflecting Chaos Alex's sword, but a beam of light struck down the left side of his body as he did so.

"Grrr…" Riku was starting to get a little frustrated with having to keep track of three foes at once, and began to realize that he had never been pushed into this type of scenario before now. As Riku retaliated against Chaos Alex by turning around and throwing his metallic fist out, Joe Dark took advantage of the situation to apply more pressure by opening a rift behind Riku and throwing a few daggers through it that stab Riku in his back and dig a couple inches into his skin without hitting any vital organs.

Riku is forced to quickly bend forward and apply pressure to his backside via his muscles to pop the dagger out and then roll to the right to avoid another beam of light, quickly getting his sword out to defend against Chaos Alex's attack, but with some more damage done to his body he wasn't able to put up as good of a defense as before and was thus knocked back quite a bit, with the staggering left behind from the blow preventing him from dodging the next beam of light in time.

While Riku and Chaos Alex continued their battle, Joe Dark just lingered back from a distance and folded his arms together, grinning happily while remarking "Very good, Mr. Reality. I must admit, I didn't expect you to do something like this." Mr. Reality, who stayed invisible beside Joe Dark, replied with "…I can't say I'm fully invested into this battle."

"I suppose I understand that." Joe Dark remarked nonchalantly as he closed his eyelids, but then he gestured his right hand out and told the alien "But I can't show bias to any one Whiter. All of them have to die for me to know true peace…The same goes for Whiter's dark clone."

"But it sounds as though this Riku fellow would help you two kill the original Whiter." Mr. Reality logically pointed out, and Joe Dark did nod his head to acknowledge that fact before bringing to the alien's attention "A fair point, but Whiter's dark clone is not going to accept that. It's certainly a conundrum when you think about it, hence why I tend to not waste time in such manners…All you want in the end is an answer from Mew, right?"

Mr. Reality nodded his head, something Joe Dark could tell he did even without looking his way, and with a grin on his face Joe Dark glanced over his shoulder and remarked "Then we aren't going to get that answer unless this clone of Whiter is taken care of. Regardless of his sanity compared to the other two, he's still threat, so lets try and remain focused if we can on the battle. If things get too out of hand though, you are welcome to make a run for it…I won't blame you, considering your family and all. But just be warned, round two is about to start…"

As Joe Dark spreads his arms out and prepares for that "second round", Riku manages to finally pull one over on Chaos Alex by using a heavy gust of wind to push himself out of the way of one of his attacks while simultaneously flipping himself around and performing a strong downward slash with his sword to knock Chaos Alex away, and afterwards he realized that Joe Dark was a good distance away and that Mr. Reality had to have been too focused on the beams of light to do anything else. The time was right, and Riku raised his sword up in front of his body and moved himself around the beams of light while concentrating on the elements of light and darkness buried within the blade.

Wrapping himself in a cocoon of light and darkness that blocks the beams of light as they drop down repeatedly onto his body, Riku takes about ten seconds to emerge from the cocoon. He was now wearing some form fitting black metal armor with pointed kneecaps and angelic feathers laid against his hips. He had a pair of angel and demonic wings on his back, and his irises had become white and black respectively. Grasped in one hand was a diamond katana, and the other held a fanged dagger of darkness.

Chaos Alex didn't pay much attention to the change at first and charged at Riku, leading Riku to raise his katana up and absorb the energy from the beams of light to reflect it straight at his charging foe, leading to Chaos Alex being consumed by the light and get blown far back through the air. Mr. Reality quickly stops summoning the beams of light so Riku could not take advantage of them, and Joe Dark decided to join back into the battle by catching Chaos Alex as he fell and then looking up at Riku and his new form not with shock but rather with intrigue in his eyes.

"Well this is new…You have light and darkness in this form." Joe Dark said as he rose up and let go of Chaos Alex, and Riku brandished his katana forward and said "I'm giving you both a chance to transform. I've heard the stories from Alpha about your other forms." Joe Dark grinned brightly at the offer Riku was giving them and said in response "You're being quite confident that you can beat us both if we change forms. I must admit, that differs you from the other two Whiters…Very well, we'll show you our different forms."

Chaos Alex had a simple transformation to perform, as he just took the power of all seven elements within his body and enveloped his form in a cocoon of black flames made of the elements, the battlefield shaking until the cocoon shatters and Chaos Alex emerges with a heavy aura of black and violet flames around his body while he spread the black Phoenix wings attached to his back as far as he possibly could.

Joe Dark, however, bent forward and applied as much pressure as he could on his entire body, causing the flesh on his back to split open wide as darkness erupted out from all directions. His body became engulfed in this darkness, and it all took on a dark violet color as it formed into the shape of a gargantuan phantasmal beast. The beast had four gigantic clawed feet and a beastly head with two horns at the top and at least four tusks at the bottom. The face split open wide and revealed a fleshy white eye with a hellish red and yellow iris, and the skin of this beastly form gained wavy flashes of black and white ethereal energy within once the transformation came to an end.

Riku widened his eyes and found himself a bit surprised by the power his two foes now had. Even so, he stayed confident and held his weapons tightly, remarking as he did so "I'm ending this now…" Joe Dark, with a booming, hallow voice, remarked to Riku immediately after "There is only one end to this battle now, clone of Whiter…You should've picked your battles more carefully than this, for this is the end of your life!"

_Next Time: Awakening_


	31. Side-Story Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Advent Genesis**

Now that Riku was in his Chaos Form, and his two foes had entered their strongest forms…The thing that Riku was still more concerned about was finding Mr. Reality, whose powers were still a big threat to him even at this level of strength. Riku needed to find him quickly before he figured out some idea that would overwhelm Riku's Chaos Form. He'd have to intertwine that with his fight between his two incredibly powerful foes, and upon realizing that this would strain his concentration quite a bit Riku brandished his diamond katana forward and thought to himself with a bit of worried sarcasm _"Can't say this isn't practice anyways…"_

Riku starts the next round of battle by having to hold his katana in front of his body and cutting down a sharp beam of darkness emerging from the ghastly pupil on Joe Dark's now beastly eye in a mere second. Joe Dark keeps the pressure on Riku with even more of those beams while Chaos Alex thrust forward at a beyond light speed and used his sword to try and force Riku to use his dagger in order to defend himself from the attempts at precise swordplay from the dark clone.

The collision of the fanged dagger against the monochrome steel of Chaos Alex's blade released repeated shockwaves of darkness in rapid succession through the air, with glints of darkness coming out every time Riku hit the beams of darkness back from Joe Dark's continued spam of projectiles. While being pushed back through the air with each assault either physical or projectile related, Riku thought to himself while focused on Chaos Alex's sword _"Considering just who came up with Alex Whiter's sword…I'm impressed that Cackletta was able to replicate the work when she made this clone. However…"_

Riku subtly flipped around his dagger and dug the hook into the underside of Chaos Alex's blade, lifting it up as hard as he could to wrench the sword out of his hand and send it flying into the air. While Chaos Alex looked up slightly in confusion, Riku used an opportunity from cutting down one of Joe Dark's eye beams to stab his katana through the right side of Chaos Alex's chest, garnering nothing but a slightly surprised look on his face as he looks down. Riku was half expecting a barrier to get in the way of his attack, but it seems that was not something the clone could replicate.

Chaos Alex instead lifted his right hand up and wrapped his fingers around the blade in it's entirety, pouring his black flames around the sword despite the amount of light infused within it and remarking in a blunt but quiet tone "Get this…out of me…Now." Riku suddenly found himself forced to pull his sword out of Chaos Alex's body as the flames do what was supposedly impossible and began to lightly crack the blade. Riku moved back a few feet as Chaos Alex wiggled his fingers and lowered his hand as his sword was slowly drawn back into his grip.

While Riku spent a moment curious to know how the hell the dark clone could possibly have gotten his sword slightly broken, Joe Dark had taken this time to slip into a gigantic gash of darkness and reemerge directly in front of Riku, charging out of it like a mad bull wrapped in darkness and ramming Riku as hard as he could in the chest of his armor with one of his tusks, cracking into it slightly as he dragged Riku across the air for a few seconds and then threw him forward with a brutal swing of his head forward.

Riku tries to stop himself from flying away by spreading his wings out and concentration his power into forcing himself to a halt, but then Mr. Reality puts an end to that plan by using his powers to undo Riku's ability to control his momentum, which led him to keep flying backwards while Joe Dark opened his mouth up wide and created a collapsing dark crimson sphere of very concentrated darkness that was swiftly devoured into his mouth with a sharp clamp of his fangs before he grinned happily and then unleashed the energy all at once in a massive cone of convulsing darkness upon opening his mouth.

Uncontrolled, the darkness did mostly fire it's way towards Riku, and with the way it waved across the sky Riku had just a few seconds to defend himself before it collide. Just because his ability to stop his momentum was broken doesn't mean he couldn't just swing his sword out to cut through the beam. But as he tried that, Chaos Alex flew in front of him faster than the beam could move and blocked the sword slash with a quick swing of his own blade, followed by the beam getting just inches within Riku's face. With his first plan foiled, Riku grit his teeth and then used split-second timing to create a barrier of light and darkness around his body to protect himself.

But with the fact that he had to be so quick about creating the barrier meant that he couldn't perfect the defenses, and some of the darkness slipped through his barrier and struck his body as hard as it could across his limbs and a bit into the cracks on the front of his chest. But at this point now Mr. Reality allowed him to regain his ability to control his momentum, which meant he could at least stay in place and fight against the beam's power for the ten seconds it existed for. His barrier shattered by the time the beam was over with, but at least he only took a bit of damage in the end.

Riku quickly went on the offensive afterwards by using his dagger to rip a hole into the dark dimension and slip into it, hoping to use the aftereffect of Joe Dark's attack to avoid being detected. But instead of that happening, Riku quickly finds himself face-to-face with a glowing eye within the darkness, and a bellowing laugh that could be recognized instantly as belonging to Joe Dark. Riku's heart skipped a beat before he drew both of his weapons and prepared to fight, using his light to heal the cracks in his katana now that he had a moment to do so.

"You're making a mistake fighting me in here, clone of Whiter…" Joe Dark remarked with a bit of arrogance in his voice, and Riku responded not with words but by concentrating on Joe Dark's presence within the darkness and then creating two reflective mirrors within the realm before pointing his katana forward and firing off a quick beam of light from it to send at one of the mirrors and make it reflect off it and fly across the darkness to try and hit Joe Dark. The light moved without making a sound, but it's glow radiated off of Joe Dark's body as it flew around the area.

The beastly Joe Dark ran silently around the dark void to get away from the beam of light that Riku fired from his sword, but Riku quickly swung his sword out to send a wave of light Joe Dark's way, intercepting his path and striking him in the face with a good blow that made him freeze in place for a moment. The flash of light from the attack gave Riku enough vision to charge forward and get close enough to Joe Dark for another attack, only for the boy to reveal that he had purposely taken the attack so he could lure Riku in for his own attack.

Joe Dark raised his front claws up and prepared to clamp them together to hold Riku in place, but they slam against the energy infused wings Riku swung beside his body to protect himself and in retaliation Riku quickly swung his right hand forward and fired off a large burst of light right into Joe Dark's eye. From this close of a range, the light hurt immensely on Joe Dark's eye, pushing him back a great distance as smoke erupts from the eye and he roars out in pain. Riku wished to follow-up with another attack, but logic dictated to him that he should leave the realm and go after Mr. Reality.

He still had to knock the alien unconscious to alleviate a lot of the problems he was having during this battle, but it was very likely that the moment he escaped this realm he'd be ambushed by both Chaos Alex from the front and Joe Dark from the back. After hearing Joe Dark's roars die down, Riku quickly swung his right hand out after sheathing his sword, and fired another blast of light at the beast to halt his charge, only this time around Joe Dark learned from his earlier mistake and coated his body in a ghastly veil that reflected the light around his form and allowed him to ram into Riku unimpeded.

From this move, Joe Dark pushed Riku right out of the realm of darkness and dragged him back into the battlefield with a swift swing of his head, lining Riku up perfectly with a charged beam of dark flames unleashed from Chaos Alex's hands. The beam of fire engulfed the sky in darkness, and the sheer power of the forces of darkness at play began to bathe the blue skies in dark clouds at long last. Riku turned around and quickly used his katana to cut through the center of the black flames with as much ease as he could, keeping enough strength in his left hand to flip it around and cut the air behind him, opening a gash up that would send a flurry of dark energy orbs at Joe Dark to hold him back from making another move.

Chaos Alex kept pressing forward with his flames pouring out, the excess wrapping past Riku's body and burning it's way through thousand of feet of ground at a diagonal slant the longer Riku kept holding it back. As Chaos Alex pressed on, his glare became firmer, his contempt for Riku's continued resistance growing with every second. Riku was waiting for a chance to strike back, thinking to himself as he did so _"If only Takashi and Sodenko were still with me, I'd be able to even the odds…" _

Gritting his teeth at that thought, Riku then firmly tells himself _"Damn it, I can't say something like that now. I need to have more confidence in myself…My brother's safety depends on my victory. He can't afford to meet these three when he can't remember a thing about his time here…" _With the protection of his brother being the only stake Riku needed in this battle, he quickly came up with a plan to handle his foes at this moment. Coating his katana in pure light, Riku waited until Chaos Alex was a few feet closer and then performed a 360 degree slash with his blade, throwing out two heavy crescents of light out that cut through the center of Chaos Alex's attack and struck his hands hard enough to leave a horizontally glowing gash within the palms.

The other crescent went after Joe Dark, who was attempting an attack from the side while Riku was seemingly distracted. Once this attack connected and cut through the horns on the beast's head, Riku broke away from the black flames that remained of Chaos Alex's attack and crossed his arms, igniting both weapons in flames of the respective elements before swinging them out into an X-shaped cross that struck the entirety of Joe Dark's face and ripped partially through his body, particularly the sides. Violet blood erupted from the eye and the sides of his face, and Joe Dark screamed in pain for a few good seconds as his hulking body stumbled back across the air.

Riku prepared to swing his arms out for another attack, only to find his arms not move in the slightest when he attempted the move. In fact, his arms had been fused together at the elbows, obviously by Mr. Reality's powers. The reality-bender thought to himself from a very far distance away as he performed this move _"I can barely keep up with this fight…But I must do what I can to assist." _That was always the flaw of this particular reality-bender…He could only change reality as fast as his thoughts would allow him to do so, and in a high-speed battle like the one he's involved in it was difficult to perform any actions.

With Riku's arms now fused together, Mr. Reality quickly tried to prepare another bit of reality warping magic to assist his two allies, but Riku was beginning to piece together just how he needed to find Mr. Reality. But first he had to work with the fact that his arms were fused together, and though his nerves and muscles were clustered together at the center of his arms he was able to lifted both of them up and swing his body to the left to use his katana and block a retaliator bite from Joe Dark's reforming jaw.

With Joe Dark recoiling back from the attack, Riku quickly flips back as he senses some black fire coming at him from behind from Chaos Alex's hands. Riku then turns around and feels his arms splitting back apart as Mr. Reality focused his efforts more on a new spell, one that flipped the perspective in both of Riku's eyes, reversing his sight in his left and turning his sight upside-down in the right, but Riku quickly adjusted to this change by simply closing his eyelids and concentrating on the power of his two foes.

Turning around, Riku uses his katana to deflect a beam strike from Joe Dark's eye, then used his dagger to rip open a gap into the darkness that swallowed the streams of red lightning Chaos Alex shot off from his fingers. At this point Chaos Alex began to get frustrated to the point that he grit his teeth slightly and murmured bitterly "…I'm getting very tired of this…" As Riku focused on Joe Dark for a bit and used his weapons to try and cut through his skin, Chaos Alex clenched his right hand tightly and concentrated on his own dark elements, gathering them all up across his arm in the form of howling black flames.

As Chaos Alex gathered the flames into his arm, Riku paused in the middle of his battle and felt the eerie vibes coming from said flames as he looked at the boy. Even Joe Dark stopped fighting for a moment upon seeing Chaos Alex bust this out. "T-That's Whiter's…" Joe Dark muttered in surprise and a bit of horrible reflection regarding his past experience with that technique. Riku slanted his eyebrows a little and thought to himself _"I guess I should've expected this to happen…But it's still a physical move. I won't let him strike me with it."_

But while Riku was contemplating the nature of Chaos Alex's technique, Joe Dark widened his beastly fangs into a grin and subtly chuckled, making Riku focus back onto him and swing his sword out to try and cut through his face, only for Joe Dark to coat his right claw in darkness and raise it up to block the attack. He then wrapped his claws around the blade to prevent Riku from pulling back on it, remarking as he did so "Poor clone of Whiter…You have no idea what this technique is capable of, are you?"

The nature of Joe Dark's grim words suggested that he had learned something about Chaos Alex's move via telepathy between them, and Riku quickly dispelled his katana to free himself and then rose into the air, flipping his body around and using a plummeting dropkick to strike Joe Dark right on the top of his head, but as the light erupts from his leg upon impact Joe Dark shows his heavy resilience by ramming his head up to meet the kick and undo most of the damage from it. Riku pushes off of the top of Joe Dark's head and suddenly feels a horrid presence coming from Chaos Alex's direction.

Glancing over his shoulder at the only moment he had available to do so, Riku saw the black flames around Chaos Alex's arm encroaching his body and forming into a very particularly comet shaped bullet in front of him, with Chaos Alex whispering as he lifted his right fist up to thrust said bullet out "Devouring Sin Bullet…" The attack is launched through the air, tearing apart the sky with a ghastly howl as it homes in on Riku with extreme prejudice, and after quickly doing his best to repel Joe Dark with a shockwave of light and darkness caused by a clang of both of his weapons hitting each other he turns around and prepares to take care of the large and strange bullet.

The energies of the bullet were strange, certainly, but in the end it was just a projectile and nothing Riku hadn't dealt with before, especially since it composed of the seven elements he was mainly used to controlling in battle. With a swing of both of his weapons outward horizontally, Riku thought it would be as simple as that to deal with Chaos Alex's technique, but not only does his attacks not do a thing to even disrupt the energies of this strange bullet, but the powers of light and darkness are swiftly devoured by the bullet as it finished making it's way towards Riku.

Riku was consumed by the attack swiftly afterwards, his arms still stretched out with weapons grasped tightly in his hands as pain spread through his entire body and the howls turned into the roars of the damned within his eardrums as the bullet made Riku feel something he had never felt before. The very elements of light and darkness he controlled within his body were being degraded with every second that the bullet lasted around his body.

Though it stuck to him for only three seconds, the pain inflicted upon Riku's body made it felt that it had lasted much, much longer than that. No physical harm came to Riku's body, but he had felt vastly weaker than he did before. _"W-What the hell was that techni-" _Riku could barely process his thoughts on this matter before Joe Dark too advantage of his weakness to bring his right claw down upon Riku's body while it was coated heavily in darkness, slamming him down out of the sky and cause him to crash against the ground.

The impact with the ground set forth an eruption of darkness that greatly satisfied Joe Dark as it happened, and he erupted into laughter as the debris thrust up from the burst of darkness crumbled down upon Riku. "Yes! I never thought that traumatic technique of Whiter's could ever be used for such a glorious purpose! Truly…The real Whiter stands no chance against this power when combined with my own and our reality-bending friend!" Joe Dark boasted the strength of the dark clone proudly, but Chaos Alex simply floated beside him and claimed quietly "…We cannot stop yet though"

Joe Dark grinned a little in his beastly form and said "Of course, so lets finish this together." Joe Dark wasted little time in opening his mouth wide as he pointed his head down towards the ground Riku was buried under, and Chaos Alex held his ignited arm at the same direction while preparing another bullet to fire out. Joe Dark's crimson sphere with black lightning merged with the Devouring Sin Bullet, forming a pale black attack that ripped through the fabric of time and space itself as it descended from the air and crashed straight into the ground.

The orb that formed upon impact swallowed all the debris in the area and then expanded outward with a bright and hellish crimson glow, it's raw power cracking the surface of the planet within this immediate battlefield, and Mr. Reality worried more about using his powers to keep the damage from spreading any farther than that than he was about using his powers to keep Riku down. But even that didn't matter much, as the alien suspected all too well that not even someone of Riku's power could've stood against that attack even if he was at full strength.

And Mr. Reality would be right…Except that Riku did not in fact take the attack head-on, and instead used the fact that he was hidden by the debris to use his dagger and slip into the realm of darkness quickly enough to get directly beside Chaos Alex and emerge from the darkness in order to swing his katana down towards Chaos Alex's burning arm to try and cut it off. But the flames are able to block the attack without their owner having to do anything but turn their head to look at Riku as he reappeared.

Riku was visibly panting, with half of his wings unfortunately singed off the edge of his foe's combined attack reaching him, and Chaos Alex was all too glad to say quietly to his foe "…So it is possible for you to run out of steam, evil me…" Riku ignited his katana with heavy amounts of light, but all of it was a wasted effort as the black flames around Chaos Alex's arm just devoured the light with ease. Riku widened his eyes in disbelief at how the black flames operated, and he wondered just how Alpha did not know about this particular ability Chaos Alex had.

His thoughts could only linger on these concerns for a few seconds before Joe Dark dropped down from above and slammed one of his claws atop Riku's body, this time around however following the boy until he brutally pressed him against the planet's surface with all of his might, the weakness in Riku's body at this moment meaning he could not keep up the defenses on his armor, and it easily cracked apart under the pressure of Joe Dark's beastly weight and strength combined.

In a surprising move, Joe Dark did not waste time gloating or expressing any arrogance in what he was doing to Riku. He applied as much pressure as he could to his foe's body, waiting until the moment he heard the snap and crack of many of Riku's bones and the scream of barely contained pain coming from his mouth that echoed off whatever remained of mountainsides before he pulled his claw off of Riku's body and stepped back a couple feet. Riku's screams went on for a good few seconds, dying out slowly as his body reverted back to his most basic form and his helix-bladed sword lied out of the grip of his hand to the right of his outspread arm.

Riku's body twitched in agony against his will, and with the way Joe Dark had put down his claw atop him some blood leaked out from the back of Riku's shoulders and spinal region. Clenching his right fist as hard as he could, Riku could not believe that he had been so swiftly defeated like this. He thought the power of light and darkness combined would've been more than enough to handle his foes…But in the end, even with the knowledge of Alpha's words of the past at the forefront of his mind, he was facing three foes at the same time, and thus what would've been useful information in a one-on-one confrontation proved only to stall his defeat in this situation.

He couldn't move, he could barely breath, and it was very perplexing as to why Joe Dark didn't just finish Riku off right then and there when there was nothing stopping him from doing so. As Joe Dark reverts back to his basic form by emerging from the shell of the phantom beast he created, Chaos Alex drops from the sky and summoned forth his sword again, raising it high into the sky ready to cleave Riku in two. But then Joe Dark bluntly remarked "Leave him be. He'll die of his own wounds soon enough."

Chaos Alex paused for a moment and glanced at Joe Dark, telling him bluntly in turn "…If we leave him be, there's always a risk of him turning things around…" Joe Dark gestured his arms out and commented immediately afterwards "You really think he has anymore tricks up his sleeve? Did that merging of light and darkness not come across as his last resort to you? It was an interesting trick, but in the end he was too weak to defeat us…He has nothing left to threaten us with."

"…So long as he dies, I suppose that's all that matters…" Chaos Alex remarked, and then he dispelled his sword and Phoenix wings. After backing up away from Riku, Chaos Alex looked at Joe Dark and told them "So are we done with this weak clone? Can we finally go after my evil me?" Joe Dark nodded his head and remarked afterwards "Yes. We've had our fun here…"

Before he was done though, Joe Dark went down beside Riku's head and kneeled down, grabbing Riku by his chin and lifting him up, forcing the head to turn against his will so he could look at the grin on Joe Dark's face while the boy said "Be thankful that I am letting you go like this…Consider it a show of respect, since you're the sanest of Whiter and his kin. But in the end, you should've known better than to fight outside of your weight class…"

Joe Dark promptly dropped Riku's head on the ground upon seeing the frustrated look on his face, and then upon standing up he looked at Chaos Alex and said "Lets head back to that old man's lab…Now we can use the warp portal to find Whiter and his first clone…" Chaos Alex and Joe Dark lifted up off the ground and slowly fly over to meet up with Mr. Reality, the three of them spending some time speaking as Riku is left on the ground feeling completely devastated by his defeat.

Riku tries to grab onto his sword and then turn himself around by clawing at the ground with his other hand, but finds it to be quite the struggle with the damage to his shoulders biting at him with every second. Riku looks at the three that had bested him and grit his teeth, his heart pounding against his chest as he murmured to himself "T-This can't be the end…I-I had to win…Am I really…That weak…?" All of the efforts Riku have put into making himself stronger, learning how to use all of his elements to the best of his ability, stumbling across the Chaos form…It all seemed incredibly pointless now that he could not defeat the foes in front of him.

"I did all I could…And even then it wasn't enough…? I-I can accept that there are people stronger than me out there…It's always…always going to be inevitable…But I can't accept being weaker than those I have to defeat…" As Riku whispered all this, he thought back to all of the battles he's dealt with since acquiring the Chaos Form, and realized that he actually never really accomplished much with it…He lost to Nazo at his strongest, Hades exploited his weaknesses and defeated him, it was only through luck that he bested Thanos, that mysterious man was stronger than him entirely, and now he could not do anything against three people who were close to him in strength…

The Chaos Form was very strong, but Riku was pretty much left to rely only on light and darkness and nothing else…He neglected the other seven elements that resided within him whenever he used that form. Riku looked up at his three foes and continued to feel disdain, but all of it was towards himself for his accursed weakness. "This can't be all I'm capable of…This can't be my limit…" He reflected on the words Takashi told him, that it's impossible to go beyond Chaos Form by using the other elements in unison with it. Maybe it was out of denial for the situation, but Riku did not want to believe that it was true…

"Why…Why wouldn't it work to use all nine elements together? Light and darkness….Fire and water…Plants, earth, wind…Lightning and ice…All of them compose the building blocks of the universe…They've all been there since the beginning of time…" Riku's body pulses twice in pain as he starts to clench around the center of his strange sword, and with him remembering everything that he knew about the elements from his two years of existence he could never bring himself to accept the possibility of defeat until he's for sure exhausted all of his options.

"My brother…I cannot let my brother…Be killed when he doesn't even remember anything about his time here…No…I cannot let him be killed at all…I cannot let anyone else be killed…I have to be stronger…I have to be stronger than all of my enemies." Riku gripped his sword as tight as he could, and this time around a pulse of strange energy flows through Riku's body as he focused on it. His heart beat against his chest heavily a few times over, and his vision began to fade out before he focused all of his remaining energy onto his sword, trying to concentrate on every single element that he has ever controlled all at once as he grips his blade.

"Nine elements…I don't know if any of you are alive, or if there is some higher power that perfectly embodies your abilities…But if there is, heed my call…I have to win here! I can't let my brother die! I need to be strong enough to protect everyone…So please…I'm begging all of you to help me out! Give me the strength to fell those who wish to kill and destroy…And I'll accept any consequence you wish to place upon me! My mind…my body…my soul…It's all yours if that's what it takes!"

As Riku finished his bitter plea with all of his strength, his sword suddenly began to glow with white and black light, slowly being consumed by it until there was nothing physical about the sword. Riku suddenly felt his body tingle in a very odd manner, with the feeling of every element pulsing across his skin until holes of bright light ripped open across his skin, with him feeling every sensation and letting out a roar of intense pain as it happened.

Joe Dark and his two allies were in the middle of moving back to Toad Town when all of a sudden they felt something sharp pierce through their minds at once, and a chill in particular crept into Joe Dark and Chaos Alex's spines. They slowly began to turn around and look at where Riku was, noticing that his body was being consumed by a burst of rainbow colored light with traces of light and darkness around the whirling mass of energy as it found itself barely being able to stay contained.

"He's trying to use evil mes Phoenix Form…Isn't he?" Chaos Alex remarked, and all of a sudden a pillar of green light erupts from a far distance away behind him. It wasn't just one pillar though, as six more of differing colors burst out of the planet's surface and the sky above in the case of the grey one. All around the planet, these gigantic pillars of elemental energy cast away the dark clouds and filled the sky with hazy neon light as all of them converged on Riku's location and slammed down upon his body, creating a massive elemental singularity that warped the very fabric of time and space at it's edge as it spreads out for at least a couple of miles in all directions.

"T-This isn't like what happened with Whiter…W-What has this clone done?! Mr. Reality, stop this, now!" Joe Dark exclaimed in a panic, but the alien had already held his hands out in front of him to try using his powers to do anything to this roaring phenomenon and could only reply with "I-I can't! It's too powerful for me to contain, even with my ability!"

The energies of this singularity began to crack apart the surface of the planet for miles on end as it shrunk down and contained itself within Riku's body, which was glowing with sheer pure light brightly and made it impossible to see him entirely. All of the ground within three miles around Riku's body was instantly absorb into the light as a pillar of sheer elemental energy shot up into the sky, bursting through the atmosphere and digging down towards the planet's core.

The planet shook, quaking in the face of whatever the hell kind of power Riku has unleashed within his body, and after a few more seconds of waiting around a shadow begins to slowly walk out of the fading pillar. The planet begins to stabilize as this happens, and it became quickly clear that Riku has changed greatly from what he just did. He now wore a spiritual robe marked with ancient symbols that have long since been lost to time. Two scrolls were draped over his shoulders and extended down to his legs, both of which were now covered by the bottom half of his robe. His robe was loose and flashed with the colors of the nine elements in a vibrant, hazy manner, the cloth it is made of resembling a very ancient form of silk. Three halos hovered around both wrists and ankles, and a necklace of bone similar to what a shaman would wear was around his neck. He gave off an aura of pure holiness, but it wavered like the heat off a pure, newborn sun and was bordered with some hints of darkness.

His hair had become pure silver, and he now had three pairs of wings on his back. At the bottom were his demonic wings, in the middle were the burning wings of a phoenix, and at the top were the angelic wings, all of them glistening gold behind him. As he opened his eyelids, his irises glowed with a rainbow neon glow, and his expression appeared to be one of pure peace. Riku stepped along the air, forming a platform with every step and performing the impossible by making the very sky tremble with every step he took.

As Riku walked out of the now fading pillar of energy, he felt every bit of elemental energy across the entire planet…Not just that, he felt the moon on the other side of the planet, the sun present high in the sky…He could feel all of it better than he ever could before. His body had become perfectly one with the nine elements…He had been reborn as something more than he ever was before. But even so, Riku refused to acknowledge himself as a god despite such a term fitting his current form perfectly. Right now, he was just perfectly content with the fact that he's now got the chance to fight again, and now has the strength to save his brother from those that wanted him dead.

Riku lifted his head up slowly and glanced at his three opponents, with Joe Dark and Mr. Reality in particularly frozen in fear and shock from what had happened to Riku. Chaos Alex, however, did not show any fear in the face of Riku's power and began to lift his right hand up to summon his sword, remarking as he did so "This is no-" In the millisecond it took Chaos Alex's muscles to twitch to signify that he was about to summon his sword, Riku suddenly widened his eyes and flew through the air even faster than that reaction occurred.

Joe Dark and Mr. Reality are blown aside by the wind Riku kicks up as he flies, but then an explosion erupts through the air made entirely of raw power as all of a sudden Riku reappears directly in front of Chaos Alex's body with his right fist plunged straight through the dark clone's chest. A large hole was blown into Chaos Alex's chest as he was pushed roughly fifty feet away from where he was before, with Riku being completely surprised that he had gone that far without intending to do so.

But the results of using his power were obvious, as with nothing more than a simple punch without any exertion, Riku had very nearly taken out all of Chaos Alex's body. The dark clone stuttered a little as his body tried to regenerate the wound in his chest, only for Riku's raw aura to prevent any of that from happening. Riku glared up at Chaos Alex and stayed eerily calm as he focused on the clone, with Chaos Alex taking the situation as it was for just a few more seconds before all of a sudden he grit his teeth and slowly tried to lift his hands up, gripping them both around the center of Riku's wrist while his skin began to destabilize in the presence of Riku's strength alone.

With sheer anger in his eyes, Chaos Alex said to Riku "I-I knew it wasn't…A-A good idea to keep you…a-alive…You're always doing this…evil me…" Riku didn't say anything in response to that and remained motionless as Chaos Alex went on to say with the utmost hatred building up in his increasingly more vocal tone of voice "You always…Get everything…Power…Friends…A life of your own…I hate you all…I hate every last one of you…Damn you to hell for getting all this that you don't deserve, while I just continue to get nothing…"

His eyes then widened in a maddened manner, and he proclaimed at the top of his lungs much to the shock of his two allies "I have come back once before and if you kill me I do so again and again and again! I'll keep coming back as many times as it takes until I finally damn every last one of you! Whiter…your brother…and you…All of you will be eliminated from this universe! So enjoy this undeserved victory while you can…"

Riku only needed a minute to charge some energy within his fist and reply to Chaos Alex with "You won't be coming back to life ever again…Not once I've spread every last atom of your existence across the cosmos." Making good on his word there, Riku lifted his fist up and pointed Chaos Alex's body towards the sky, and with one small exertion of his power he creates a widespread series of giant explosions full of elemental energy, all of them ripping apart Chaos Alex's body in it's entirety. Nothing could be seen of the dark clone by the time Riku was done with him, and the explosions launched the remains of his body straight out into space where none of the atoms could ever merge back together.

Riku held his arm up in the air for a few seconds, getting a grasp of the raw power he had at his fingertips before he clenched his fingers together into a fist and lowered the arm down, slowly turning himself around to look at both Joe Dark and Mr. Reality, and Mr. Reality in particular knew that he was way, WAY out of his mind if he tried to get involved any further. Joe Dark, however, just grit his teeth in sheer anger out because of Chaos Alex's swift demise, leading Riku to hold a hand up calmly and say to the boy "I'm giving you a chance now…Either forget about going after me and my brother, or this will be your fate as well. I'm far beyond your power now, Joe Dark, so there's nothing you can do to avenge your comrade…It's over."

_Next Time: Darkness' Determination_


	32. Side-Story Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: Rage Against the Light**

Joe Dark was at a complete loss for words. In a blink of an eye, Riku had wiped one of his allies off this plane of existence like it was nothing. The sheer, overwhelming power Riku exuded around his body very nearly paralyzed Joe Dark where he stood, and the mockery the clone displayed towards him by bluntly stating that he was now no match for him was quite true…But that did nothing to quell the rage building up inside of his mind in spite of the equal amounts of fear that was present as well.

Gone in an instant, Joe Dark only had the last words of Chaos Alex to reflect on as he stood there in mid-air, wondering why Riku didn't just kill him then and there. Once again one of Whiter's kin had reversed the situation entirely against him with something that he could not possibly had predicted did exist. Joe Dark swiftly realized that this always happens, that Chaos Alex was right in saying that he should have killed Riku right from the start. He made the mistake of showing respect to one of Whiter's kin for being just a little bit different, and now his ally…no…his friend, was gone from this universe forever.

Joe Dark's head throbbed in pain, his heart palpitated against his chest, his muscles ached, and above all else he felt scared deep down. The cycle would repeat again…Riku would kill him, just like Alex Whiter did and Mew nearly did before. Was this going to keep happening? Would Joe Dark keep dying and coming back only to be met with yet another clone who is stronger than the last? What's the point of any of his efforts if the universe is dead set on making it all futile? _"Damn it…Damn it…"_ Joe Dark thought to himself as these questions plagued him.

Riku noticed the distressed and frenzied look on Joe Dark's face, but glances away from him for a moment as Mr. Reality tried to remain as calm as he could and remarked "I won't harm a hair on your brother's head. All I want in the end is to know the answer to my question…" Riku nodded his head in agreement of that, but then Joe Dark suddenly snapped and exclaimed while hunched forward "One of our allies just died! How can you just ignore that?!"

Mr. Reality glanced at Joe Dark in pity and told him "…I'm saddened by his death too…But we are way out of our league here. He's giving us a chance to leave this matter be. We should take it." Joe Dark clenched his teeth and fists tightly and responded bluntly with "No! Then we're just giving in to his whims…I will never become someone who will obey the whims of any Whiter!"

Riku raised a hand up, the pressure of his power pushing Joe Dark back a little as Riku said "You can't defeat me. You can't avenge your fallen comrade. It's an impossibility. Leave now. There's nothing left for you here…" As Riku said that, Joe Dark happened to notice something odd floating above Riku. There was a heavy cloud of darkness left behind from Chaos Alex's body that represented the sheer darkness he had contained within him. Somehow, Riku had not seemed to notice this, and seeing this darkness gave Joe Dark an idea.

Firming his expression into one of sheer determination, Joe Dark looked straight at Riku and said while concentrating on the darkness Chaos Alex left behind to begin dragging it towards his body "Mr. Reality…Leave now. Return back to your family…You do not need to be dragged into this anymore." Mr. Reality widened his eye and stated "Y-You can't seriously be considering fighting Riku now. It's suicide!"

Mr. Reality then began to notice the darkness from Chaos Alex's wrapping around Joe Dark's body, and Riku began to see the same thing and raised his eyebrows a tiny bit, wondering just how Joe Dark planned to use it. As the darkness wrapped around Joe Dark, the dark clouds fought to overtake the atmosphere Riku had created with his power, and flashes of dark lightning struck down across the planet as Joe Dark tightened his muscles as hard as he could and put all of his concentration into pulling off one last transformation…One that he had not used since his fight against Alex Whiter himself.

The darkness burst around Joe Dark's body as he screamed at the top of his lungs. The darkness then breaks away, revealing a black suit of armor with bloody fanged skulls on the shoulders and chains reaching from back to wrap around both chest and arms. His reddish spiked grieves and armor padded knees were complimented by a black sword hilted around his waist, and the handle of said sword had three veins with blood pumping to the disc centered between the blade and the handle itself. Joe Dark's eyes brightened red as he finished this transformation into the likeliness of the Dark King's appearance, and his sheer power shook the planet, but not to the extent that Riku had managed.

Mr. Reality knew at this point that he needed to heed Joe Dark's advice and escape the area, perhaps even the planet itself, before the battle began. With dark electricity surging around his body, Joe Dark moved his hand to the handle of his sword and began to pull it out, glancing back at Mr. Reality and exclaiming to him with all of his ferocity "GET OUT OF HERE!" The very moment the alien began to leave after a pause of concern for his ally, Joe Dark wasted no time in drawing his sword and charging right at Riku, slamming his blade as hard as he could against Riku's hand as he lifted it up to defend himself.

The impact of Joe Dark's attack created a large burst of darkness across miles of the sky, one that ripped apart the ground far below them and actually caused the annihilation of a couple mountains far away from where they were. Mr. Reality was also accidentally blown away, regardless of how hard he tried to keep himself steady. As Joe Dark grit his teeth and locked his sword against Riku's palm without him budging back even an inch, he proclaimed with all of his might "I'm SICK and TIRED of all of you taking everything away from me! The justice for my family's murder, my life, my peace of mind, and now my ally's life as well?!"

Riku begins to grip his fingers around Joe Dark's sword while he stated "Just stop this then. You're the only one responsible for your self-destruction, Joe Dark." Joe Dark bursts forth darkness into his sword to counteract Riku's strength as much as he could, telling him as he grit his teeth and squinted his eyelids "There's only one way this is going to stop, clone o-…No, Riku! The only way I will ever escape this damned nightmare is if I remove every trace of you and your brethren from the universe!"

Joe Dark focused the darkness around his sword into a hardened mass and then swung it across the rest of Riku's palm to try and cut through it with a powerful slash of darkness that bathed the sky in miles on black energy, but Riku merely flew away in a second and ended up behind the edge of the attack. Riku then lifted his right hand up and increased the amount of power he was using in this form, brightening the intensity of his aura as he created a sword made out of the neon flames of all elements combined, one that existed as nothing more than a barely compressed cylindrical mass around the grip of his fingers and was roughly as long as he was tall.

Joe Dark swung his own sword out and flared up the darkness around his own body until it very nearly consumed him, the anger never leaving his face as he did so. He then disappeared from sight for a moment and tried to charge at Riku from the right side with high speed movements, but Riku could perceive the speed Joe Dark was moving, and to him that speed was easy to follow. Raising his sword up like a blur in the sky, Riku blocks Joe Dark's attack and causes an overflow of elemental energy to exude out in a shockwave that lashed the surface below and ripped through miles of the planet's underground.

Joe Dark then sped to the other side of Riku's body and attempting to attack him from there, only for the same thing to happen as Riku raised his left hand up to protect himself. Joe Dark proceeds to go through a series of high-speed slashes all around Riku's body, but none of them break through and the resounding shockwaves continue to lay waste to the planet's surface. Riku observed the destruction of the surface for a few seconds before he raised his left hand up and casually unleashed a miniature hurricane to blow Joe Dark away from him.

Pushing Joe Dark into the sky with that attack, Riku quickly pursued him through the eye of his hurricane and spins himself around once while holding his elongated sword in both hands behind him, swinging it straight down to slice Joe Dark right in half and send both parts of his body flying straight towards the ground. Blood and darkness leaked from the halves of Joe Dark as until they crash against the planet's surface and make stalactites burst up from the ground that were as high as the tallest towers. Joe Dark's halves were then suspended between the stalactites while they fused back together.

Riku spread his arms out above the stalactites and ripped open at least a hundred holes within time and space, summoning forth as many copies of his elemental blade from these rifts to target Joe Dark. The sky was lit by the neon light of the blades, and Joe Dark obliterated the tops of the stalactites as he got back up, and upon looking at all the blades Riku had summoned he quickly swung his sword forward to open a rift to the darkness and slip out of the way before he'd be hit by the descending rain of blades.

But to the surprise of both Riku and Joe Dark, the blades ignored the laws of transdimensional travel and attacked from both the physical and dark planes of existence at the exact same time, causing some of the blades to pierce right through large chunks of Joe Dark's body and make him get ripped right of the dark dimension from the force of the blades' momentum, screaming in pain as he did so. The most gruesome damage to his body came from the right side of his face being burned away from the blade, but with his anger fueling his darkness to the maximum it could Joe Dark quickly recovered from that attack and laid a hand against the side of his face while panting slightly.

"D-DAMN IT!" Joe Dark exclaimed in frustration, and Riku appeared behind him in a nanosecond in order to lay a couple of fingers against Joe Dark's neck and send an absolute chill down his spine while the back of his armor was slowly consumed by a frost. "Just stop this already. You can't win…" Riku whispered into Joe Dark's ear with calm arrogance, but Joe Dark responded by fighting against the chill in his body and turning around to try and lob Riku's head off with his sword only for the boy to teleport ten feet behind where he was positioned now.

"IF you're going to keep making a mockery of me, then just end my life now!" Joe Dark exclaimed while melting away the ice on his body with his darkness, and upon turning around to face Riku again he immediately wastes little time in swing his sword out, creating a multitude of dark slashes across the sky that pummel the front of Riku's body and do maybe minimal damage at the most as he stands there and takes it while remarking "You decided to be greedy…You decided to try and go after my brother. You should have known better than to try and face us given your track record, Joe Dark…"

Then Riku, without lifting a hand or moving a muscle, caused a gigantic tidal wave to come out and sweep over Joe Dark's body, but the water was boiling hot and burned off his skin and hair while knocking him back quite a number of feet. Joe Dark flared up his aura after the water subsided and then flew back through the air, swinging his left hand out and summoning forth multiple copies of the crimson spheres of darkness he had used earlier in that beastly form while his skin regenerated.

Joe Dark fired them all off at once, simultaneously merging them into a single gigantic orb that collapsed and shot out space distorting black sparks as it traveled forward. Before it blew up, Riku raised his right hand up and wrapped his fingers around the sphere to collapse it down perfectly into almost nothingness, where it explodes in a heavy burst of darkness that left tons of smoke emerging between Riku's fingers, and as he spread his fingers open it's shown that Joe Dark's attack just barely singed his skin.

Riku then summoned his energy sword again and lifted it up to block a stab attempt to the face by Joe Dark, and this time Riku sends out a vibration of darkness through his foe's sword to shatter the blade entirely, all without breaking the momentum Joe Dark built up in charging him. Thus, Joe Dark kept flying forward even after his blade was gone, and Riku met his flight by raising his left hand up and grabbing a hold of his face. With a careful exertion of energy from his hand, Riku set the innards of Joe Dark'd body aflame and then threw him forward, watching as neon flames burst forth from his mouth and eye sockets while he kept a mostly neutral look on his face.

At this point Riku began to notice something peculiar going on with the planet, as while this battle of his was going on the planet itself began to shake beneath him. What was left of the ground below began to crack apart at the seams, with mounds upon mounds of lava erupting from the cracks as though a volcano had been set off in the area. It didn't take Riku long to realize that by simply existing in this form, he was applying strain to the planet, and it was clear that if Riku kept this up for much longer the destruction would spread to envelop the entire planet.

As Joe Dark's innards stop being burned and he slowly regenerated all of them back painfully, he immediately exclaimed upon getting his mouth and lungs back "W-What the hell are you?! Have you sacrificed your humanity and become a god?!" Riku gave him only half of a glance as he held his left hand out and remarked quietly "I'm still a human…I guess I can't deny that I've become a human that has surpassed all possible limits, but I refuse to see myself as a god in any capacity. No…I'm just as strong as I need to be to take care of any lasting threats that get in my way now and forevermore."

"D-Damn you…DAMN YOU!" Joe Dark could only blurt out such words as he flared up the darkness so much that it added to the destruction caused by Riku's mere presence, actively creating eruptions of boiling lava from the ground behind his body as his aura howled in anger. It was now that Joe Dark had reached his full power, and though he was far beyond the level he was when he had fought in that beastly state, he did not make Riku flinch in the slightest with his power. Riku commented on that very matter by saying "…When I killed your partner, I used maybe 5% of this form's full power. Ever since…I've only had to use 50% to overwhelm you. Just because you've gone all out doesn't mean that fact will change."

Joe Dark just grit his teeth in response to that and then appeared in front of Riku, using both of his hands to bring his sword down like a guillotine upon Riku's head, but Riku did not even need to use his hands or sword to defend himself as his body was strong enough to block it, even as the blade ripped a vertical gash of darkness across the sky taller than the highest mountain on the planet Earth. Riku then caused the blade to crumple apart with the presence of his aura while stating "You could've matched me if I stuck to 30%…Maybe. But you're outmatched now…This is the full power of all the elements when they work in unison that you're up against. If you couldn't handle Alex Whiter when he used just seven…What made you think you can handle me now?"

Suddenly, Riku summons forth a series of thick golden vines that wrapped around Joe Dark's form and pulled him back away from Riku, with the boy then dispelling his sword and raising his right hand up, stating as he did so "I'll handle Alex Whiter on my own. This power is more than enough I feel…But first I have to deal with you, and I won't be able to continue doing that on this planet without destroying it entirely with my presence. So lets take a trip out to space, shall we?"

With a burst of wind from his hand that was more violent and powerful than the hurricane from before, Riku ripped through Joe Dark's bounded body and launched him straight through the sky at an unbelievable pace, with his eardrums screaming at the velocity he was moving at until he was suddenly stopped by Riku appearing behind him in an instant and kneeing him hard in the back with a thundering knee thrust, one that unleashed an x-shape burst of electricity that put thunderclouds in the sky and pierced a hole right through the center of Joe Dark's chest as his body was simultaneously electrocuted.

By this point Riku had carried Joe Dark out to the recesses of space beyond the atmosphere of Plit, and with a swift flight around his body to reach the front Riku laid one finger against Joe Dark's armored chest and used a magnitude 50 tremor to liquidize his innards and a large chunk of his armor before using a shockwave a second later to launch Joe Dark's limping body straight across the circumference of the planet's atmosphere and have him eventually crash right through the moon on the other side. The moon shattered apart from the impact, but Riku was not so careless as to just let that happen without using his powers to hold the entire planet's tides at a natural level as he flew around the planet in a second to get to the broken moon.

Holding his hands out, Riku felt as though he could affect the moon now, something he was not capable of doing before, and his first act upon realizing this was to perfectly fit the moon back together with Joe Dark's body trapped in the boiling core of the celestial rock. Riku overlooked the moon and thought his job was done, but it only took five seconds for Joe Dark to burst right out of the moon with his body reduced to a regenerating armored skeleton as he flew straight at Riku with sword still grasped in his hand.

It was only desperation to change his accursed fate that drove Joe Dark on. He wanted to win, he wanted to find something of value in his otherwise tragic existence…But in the end he was always biting off more than he could chew, always failing to recognize what buttons not to press with his opponents, and never would he back down even against the foes that truly outclassed him because he had something he had to fight for, something that would push him to Hell and back if that's what it would take. Closing his eyelids and contemplating on this matter, Riku realized that if their powers were reversed, he'd still fight with the same level of desperation Joe Dark would, and he'd do it all for his brother's sake.

As Joe Dark's silent screams went out through the expanse of space and he went for the mightiest slash he possibly could, with darkness extending out of his sword for thousands of miles on end and the tip of this extended blade etching a chasm into the moon behind him, Riku raised his right hand up and promptly caught the attack the moment it hit with his body being pushed to the side just a couple feet as he had to push himself to 60% of his power to completely make the attack worthless. Then, with Joe Dark's sword caught in his hand and the darkness harmlessly cutting through his body, Riku pitied his foe and did the merciful thing…

Using the powers at his disposal, Riku focused on Joe Dark's body by using the blade as a conduit, and turned his own darkness against him to such a magnitude that his body actually erupts across all limbs and the like with blood. The darkness could not protect him from this final move of Riku's, and as his mouth filled with Joe Dark was dropped out of the Dark King form and left to float out into the cold depths of space, once more dead.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Riku turned around and was ready to just return to the planet, but then he sensed something behind him and quickly turned around. It wasn't Joe Dark coming back to life he sensed, at least at first, but rather that Mr. Reality had made his presence known again by placing his hands close to Joe Dark's body and using his reality-warping powers to repair the damage to his body, though even with that Joe Dark was left unconscious. Riku glared at Mr. Reality and asked of him "What are you doing?"

Mr. Reality, despite knowing how outclassed he was, turned to look at Riku's godly form and told him bluntly "I'm sorry Joseph kept going like he did. And I agree we shouldn't have picked this fight…But please hear me out." Riku knew that Mr. Reality was a voice of reason as of now, so he didn't hesitate to nod his head before Mr. Reality placed his hands against his cape and explained "I believed at one point that Joseph was a terrible person…But in traveling with him I've seen that that's not the case. He had plenty of chances to threaten me and force me to work with him, but instead he let me come of my own will. He also didn't desire to attack anyone that are allies of Alex Whiter this time around. Buried within all that rage and darkness IS a kind soul…"

Riku was quiet for a moment as he heard Mr. Reality speak, and the alien then gestured a hand out at Joe Dark and remarked "But so long as Alex Whiter exists, he'll never be able to show that kindness to others. He'll never know peace…Either in body or soul. If I let him die now, then his existence truly was pointless. So this is the deal I wish to make…Let the two of us go, and I promise we will never bother you or your brother again." Riku crossed his arms together and stated "But what about my brother's promise to you?"

Mr. Reality closed his eyelid and stated "I believe you when you say your brother's amnesiac. If that happened not long after we departed from each other, then I can only imagine Alex Whiter performed the deed. It's been three years since that day, so dredging up those old memories could only result in a lot of grief for him…I'll find another solution to the Parakali parasite, I have time to waste." Riku spread his arms out beside his body and stated after a pause "…Ok then. In the end, Alex Whiter needs to die. Not my brother…not me."

"…So you'll let us both go?" Mr. Reality stated, and Riku held his hand out and used his immense power to focus on and restrain the parasites in Mr. Reality's mind while remarking "Just undo all the damage our battle did to the planet first, and wipe the memories of everyone but E. Gadd so they don't question what happened." Mr. Reality smiled and said "It can be done under these conditions. Thank you very much for this, and perhaps we'll see each other again someday as friends or allies…Not enemies."

With his powers working at the best capacity, Mr. Reality released a massive flash of light that spread out across the entire planet in an instant. Thanks to that, what Riku requested is accomplished in a few seconds, and with that Riku felt safe and content to leave his new godly form. But before he did so, he noticed that Mr. Reality had used that moment to warp himself and the unconscious Joe Dark somewhere faraway. Letting out a sigh of relief now that it was over, Riku focused on himself and returned to his base form…

But the very moment he did so, Riku became incredibly dizzy. His vision blurred to a great extent and he was barely able to sustain his flight in the middle of space. Even though turning into that new form had healed his body, now he felt almost as weak as he did before transforming, and he didn't know just why that was. "D-Did that form…Take this much energy out of me to…" Riku couldn't even finish his sentence, as his body became to convulse in pain. If he didn't get back to the planet quickly, he'd likely be in grave danger.

As such, Riku quickly reached into his right pocket and pulled out E. Gadd's communicator that he had been keeping on him, and quickly dialed the professor up. Once he connects with the lab, Riku quickly stated "D-Don't ask any questions yet…P-Please lock onto my signal and bring me back…" Riku then lowered his arm and waited for the portal to be opened up, leaning back and falling into said portal once E. Gadd had put it behind him. With a quick slip through time and space, Riku drops out of the portal and lands flat on his back on the hard ground of E. Gadd's lab, surprising the professor the moment he appeared.

"Oh? Are you alright, Riku?" E. Gadd remarked as he leaped from his chair and went over to Riku's unconscious body, and Riku's heart was beating heavily against his chest while a cold sweat dripped down the sides of his head. "I-It's ok professor…The trouble has subsided…I-I-I'm just tired…" Riku stated while his body was slowly recovering from overuse, leading to E. Gadd looking at him and asking "…I'm going to assume that prolonged earthquake from earlier was your doing?"

Riku nodded his head to the best of his ability and said "S-Sorry about that…" E. Gadd remarked "Do you need me to get anything to help you out?" Riku let out a gasp of air and replied quickly afterwards "J-Just let me rest for a while professor…Then we-we can get back to looking for more tablets and stuff…"

"Ohohooh, if you're sure about that, I look forward to that. I'll try not to step on you and what-not. How very odd that those three came back to our planet though…" E. Gadd remarked before returning to his work, and Riku laid a hand against the side of his head as it throbbed in pain and grimaced as a voice began to speak inside of his head _"It has not been since the beginning of time that the nine elements have been united like that. But you will keep paying the cost of your life energy every time you choose to use that form."_

Chuckling a little at that voice's comments, Riku murmured to himself "Yeah…L-Like I'm t-that worried about that restriction…" Laughing quietly to himself for a few good seconds, Riku contemplated the voice's words and then came to a decision. If this has been the first time the nine elements had been united again since the beginning of time, then it only made sense to call his new form the Genesis Form. And with that power Genesis Form had, even at the cost of his life energy, he would someday find and kill Alex Whiter…

**SIDE-STORY…THE END.**


	33. Part 5 Epilogue

**Epilogue: The True Threat Has Yet To Reveal Itself…**

_One week after Gravitus' defeat and Riku's battle with Joe Dark and his allies…_

Far, far from the edge of the nine planets in the Milky Way Galaxy was a lone asteroid floating through the depths of space. You'd think this asteroid would be uninhabited, but you'd be wrong in this instance. On this large celestial rock lied an unconscious body, and as unbelievable as it sounds after the beating he received…It was the disgraced Aurian Gravitus who lied on this asteroid, his metallic body torn into all-around from the damage he received from Kairi's final attack.

Gravitus could barely move any part of his body, and it's clear that he was infuriated by the fact that he was in this situation in the first place. With barely any aura in his malfunctioning body, there was no way for him to repair himself or fly off this asteroid. He was stuck here, and things were only going to get worse for him. Not long after the seventh day of his entrapment on this rock began, someone landed down on the asteroid to the right of him.

Gravitus turned his head in that direction and looked up, grinning brightly and letting out a hearty laugh at his fate as he recognizes the person as Joe Dark, the one responsible for making him put on this metallic body prematurely in the first place. Joe Dark haphazardly raised his right hand up and pointed it at Gravitus' body, charging darkness in his palm as he barely put any effort into glaring at him. Joe Dark then remarked "To think that you are still alive…It seems I'm not the only one who cannot stay dead…"

"Hehehe…And what brings you to these parts, Dark King?" Gravitus remarked without fear in his voice, and Joe Dark bluntly replied "I'm searching for Whiter once again…I figure maybe I'll have some luck if I search in my home galaxy, but instead I find you writhing in pain in a new body. How the hell did you manage to survive anyways?" Gravitus replied by turning his head back to it's original position and laughed, saying afterwards "I am quite immortal, as it turns out."

"Hmph…And yet it's this new body that sustains you, isn't it?" Joe Dark said with little care in his voice, followed by Gravitus remarking "Hehehehe…You're thinking about 'killing' me again, aren't you?" "Considering what you tried to do…Yes, I think that's only appropriate." Joe Dark said, the darkness increasing further within his hand as he did so.

"Heheh…You should be thankful that I even saved your life, ingrate. I wanted to make something good out of you…Especially since you've wasted your life in a relentless pursuit of Alex Whiter." Gravitus remarked, and this set Joe Dark off a little as he widened his eyes in anger. Gravitus pressed the boy further as he held his head back in laughter and exclaimed while laying a hand on top of his chest "And what will you do when you find him again?! You worthless reincarnation of the Dark King…You can't do anything but prolong your worthless life! Killing me will bring you no-"

Joe Dark grew tired of Gravitus' words and quickly fired off a piercing blast of darkness from his hand while screaming in frustration, not noticing as an odd symbol appeared on the back of his Gravitus' hand for a second. Gravitus' metallic chest is ripped right through, and the darkness strikes through the asteroid as well. Gravitus is immediately silenced by that attack, possibly because the last remaining bit of aura in his body was depleted from that move. Joe Dark looked at Gravitus' broken body, specifically the head, and with his expression being one of pure rage he lifted his left foot up and prepared to stomp the head into nothingness so he could never, EVER come back.

But all of a sudden, Joe Dark is slashed across the back by someone he had not detected, and his body felt strange the moment the sword connected. Slamming his foot against the ground beside Gravitus' head, Joe Dark turned around to see who was attacking him, remarking as he did so "W-Who's there?!" But not only did his movements feel slowed, but his voice was slow as well. He was then cut multiple times by the same person, his body quickly slowing down until his time paused entirely and he could not move at all.

With Joe Dark's mouth left agape from shock, his body is promptly thrown to the ground by his aggressor brutally kicking him against his left hip. Once Joe Dark was thrown to the ground, the figure went beside Gravitus' body and kneeled down, panting happily as he planted both of his odd swords against the ground, remarking as he did so "I-I knew you were still alive, Lord Gravitus…I, Aurian Pluto, have stopped your assailant, and am ready to offer my aura to you so you can stand again."

All of a sudden, Gravitus turned his head and grinned brightly, but shows that Joe Dark's attack had done something to his aura as he weakly commented "That's a good comrade…Give me as much as you can." Pluto lifted his head up and grinned maniacally, his hair frizzled beyond belief as it was clear that his defeat at Mew's hands had robbed him of all of his sanity. Keeping his swords on the ground, Pluto stood up and extended his hands out, taking the aura from his body and transferring a ton of it straight over to Gravitus.

It didn't take very long for Gravitus to convert that aura to his own and use it to repair his body back to it's original state, simultaneously raising himself up off the ground with his gravity powers so he can stand upright once more. His grin was one of pure joy now that he was able to move on his own again, and Pluto laughed merrily while remarking "My Lord has returned! Hahahahaha! Yes! Yes! YES!" Pluto was incredibly proud to have been a part of Gravitus' 'revival', and Gravitus himself was appreciative of this fact as he turned and said "I'm glad you had found me. Thank you."

"I would do anything for you my Lord…Heheheh…So tell me? What shall we do next? Shall we dispose of your assailant's body? Get revenge on that arrogant Overlord and that bratty scion?! Tell me and I shall follow your whims!" Pluto remarked all too enthusiastically, followed by Gravitus glancing at Joe Dark's body and remarking "I will do something with his body later. As for you…I still need a bit of time to recover. Allow me to take one of your swords to defend myself, if that's alright."

"Of course! Take as long as you need to in order to recover my Lord…I will stand watch in the mean time!" Pluto picked up the size-altering sword while Gravitus picked up the time-altering one, and Gravitus took a look at it for a few seconds and then grinned while Pluto turned around and began to walk away. "Hehehe…Thank you indeed for your loyalty. Allow me to repay your efforts!" Gravitus suddenly took the sword in his hand and swung it straight across Pluto's back before he could notice this swift betrayal, and Gravitus wasted no time in prolonging the cut so Pluto would swiftly be frozen in time like Joe Dark currently was.

After freezing Pluto's time and watching him drop to the ground, Gravitus throws the sword down and then laughs at Pluto's efforts, saying to him in a completely callous tone "Foolish king…I never considered you an equal. But don't worry…I'll find a good use for you soon enough. You and the rest of the Planetary Aurians have not seen the last of me…" Gravitus then turned to Joe Dark and grinned way too happily, walking over to his fallen body and saying "As for you…"

He then raised his right fist into the air and with most of his might he threw a heavy punch right down onto Joe Dark's body, striking him multiple times with the same amount of brutality every time while laughing maniacally, and with his strength unleashed he quickly broke the asteroid apart by the time he was done pummeling Joe Dark. The boy couldn't feel anything, and his skin did not change at the moment, but Gravitus did not care for any of that as he stood upright and exclaimed "You should have known better than to mess with me, boy! But you've done your part…"

Gravitus raised his right hand around and looked it over, stating quietly as he did so "It's gone…That means two seals have been broken, and there's only one left. Hehehe…" Gravitus used his powers to piece the broken asteroid back together while he turned around and slowly walked towards the edge of the asteroid. Looking towards the starry sky, Gravitus grinned brightly and said as a few events unfolded across the universe at this very moment.

"_Foolish Overlord…Foolish Daughter…You can savor your 'peace' at this moment…" _On the planet Earth, Mew and Kairi were in the middle of enjoying some small vanilla ice cream cones together at Mew's house, both of them having content smiles on their faces…

"_Phoenix of Balance…You may think that the great power you have obtained will allow you to best all foes now…" _On Plit, Riku was currently piecing together the fragments of a rather strange tablet with E. Gadd, and on this tablet there was a depiction of a black, draconic-wyvern creature facing what could only be described as the original Elemental Overlord. The text could not be translated with what Riku had at the moment, but looking at that picture filled him with an odd sense of dread…

"_But you have no idea of what allies I have…You have no clue the dark history that has long since been buried by the higher-ups and the original Elemental Overlord…Or just how far the depravity of this universe and it's denizens goes!" _In an unknown part of the universe, a rift of time-space opened up, and someone walked out of it. This person wore a black glove on his right hand with metal plates on both sides of it, and that hand was gripping a familiar black and gold stone. The person grinned eerily as he emerged…

Gravitus looked towards the stars in space and clenched his fists tightly, exclaiming as he did so "Elemental Overlords, Dark Kings, Aurians…None of them matter in the slightest compared to what's to come. Everything shall forever be changed once he is freed back into this damned universe…" Raising his fists high above him, Gravitus proclaimed with all of his anticipation "So as your loyal ally, I shall stand here and await the moment you are freed…MASTER JUSTEK!"

_To be continued…_

* * *

**Author's Note:  
**

Now we're through with Part 5...And I must say, this is definitely my favorite part to have written, for now...Next up is Part 6, but I have a bit of an announcement for that one.

I'll be taking a one month break between Parts for the first time ever. I'll still be writing another story during that time, but don't expect it to be CotE related. Come back in a month though for Part 6, the biggest and grandest part of the series thus far.


End file.
